UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 

BROWSING  ROOM 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


tie 


tie  Balzac 

PROVINCIAL  LIFE 

VOLUME  I 


LIMITED   TO   ONE   THOUSAND   COMPLETE   COPIES 

713 


NO. 


THE  NEMOURS  DILIGENCE 


Savinien  was  the  first  to  awaken.  He  then 
noticed  Ursule  with  the  disordered  head  caused 
by  the  jolting ;  the  cap  was  crumpled,  turned  up  ; 
the  unrolled  plaits  fell  on  both  sides  of  her  face, 
flushed  with  the  heat  of  the  carriage ;  but,  in  this 
situation,  which  would  be  dreadful  for  women  who 
depend  upon  toilette,  youth  and  beauty  triumph. 


THE   NOVELS 


OF 


NOW   FOR   THE    FIRST  TIME 
COMPLETELY    TRANSLATED    INTO    ENGLISH 


URSULE  MIROUET 

BY  MAY  TOMLINSON 


WITH    FIVE    ETCHINGS   BY   RICARDO  DE    LOS    RIOS    AFTER 
PAINTINGS    BY    EDOUARD    TOUDOUZE 


IN  ONE  VOLUME 


PRINTED  ONLY  FOR  SUBSCRIBERS  BY 

GEORGE   BARRIE   &  SON,   PHILADELPHIA 
•I 


COPYRIGHTED,    1897,  BY  G.  B.  A  SON 


&  •«  •  •  •:  -  •  :*  "< 

>•*•..•:-•..:    .  :    .. 


--  i 


e 

^ 

> 


cc 


2115* 


URSULE  MIROUET 


189947 


TO  MADEMOISELLE  SOPHIE  SURVILLE 

It  is  a  real  pleasure,  my  dear  niece,  to  dedicate 
to  you  a  book,  the  subject  and  details  of  which  have 
gained  the  hard-earned  approval  of  a  young  girl 
who,  as  yet,  knows  nothing  of  the  world  and  does 
not  compromise  with  any  of  the  lofty  principles  of 
a  pious  education.  You  young  girls  are  a  formid- 
able public;  for  you  ought  to  be  allowed  to  read 
only  books  that  are  as  pure  as  your  minds,  and  you 
are  forbidden  certain  literature  as  you  are  pre- 
vented from  seeing  society  such  as  it  is.  May  not 
an  author  therefore  take  pride  in  having  pleased 
you?  God  grant  that  fondness  has  not  deceived 
you !  Who  can  say  ?  That  future  which,  I  trust, 
you  may  see,  and  which  may  no  longer  behold 

Your  uncle 

DE  BALZAC 


(3) 


PART  FIRST 
THE  FRIGHTENED  HEIRS 


In  entering  Nemours,  on  the  Paris  side,  one 
crosses  the  canal  of  the  Loing,  the  banks  of  which 
make  both  rustic  ramparts  and  picturesque  walks  for 
this  pretty  little  town.  Since  1830,  several  houses 
have,  unfortunately,  been  built  on  this  side  of  the 
bridge.  If  this  species  of  suburb  increases,  the 
appearance  of  the  town  will  lose  its  charming  origi- 
nality. But,  in  1829,  the  sides  of  the  way  being 
clear,  the  postmaster,  a  big,  stout  man  about  sixty 
years  of  age,  seated  at  the  highest  point  of  this 
bridge,  could  perfectly  well,  on  a  fine  morning,  em- 
brace that  which,  in  the  terms  of  his  profession,  is 
called  a  highroad.  The  month  of  September  was 
putting  forth  its  treasures,  the  atmosphere  burning 
above  the  grass  and  stones,  no  cloud  disturbing  the 
blue  of  the  ether  whose  purity,  everywhere  intense, 
even  on  the  horizon,  told  of  the  exceeding  rarefac- 
tion of  the  air.  So  that  Minoret-Levrault,  as  the 
postmaster  was  called,  was  obliged  to  make  a  screen 

(5) 


6  URSULE  MIROUET 

of  one  hand  to  avoid  being  dazzled.  Like  a  man 
provoked  at  waiting,  he  looked  now  at  the  delightful 
fields  that  spread  to  the  right  of  the  road,  and  where 
the  aftermath  was  growing,  now  at  the  wood-cov- 
ered hill  which,  on  the  left,  stretches  from  Nemours 
to  Bouron.  In  the  valley  of  the  Loing,  where 
echoed  the  noises  of  the  road,  thrown  back  by  the 
hill,  he  could  hear  the  gallop  of  his  own  horses  and 
the  crack  of  his  postilions'  whips.  Could  any  but  a 
postmaster  grow  impatient  before  a  field  full  of  Paul 
Potter  cattle,  under  a  Raphael  sky,  over  a  canal 
shaded  by  trees  in  Hobbema's  style?  Anyone 
acquainted  with  Nemours  knows  that  there  nature 
is  as  beautiful  as  art,  whose  mission  is  to  spirit- 
ualize her;  there,  the  scenery  holds  ideas  and  rouses 
thought.  But,  at  sight  of  Minoret-Levrault,  an 
artist  would  have  forsaken  the  view  to  sketch  this 
bourgeois,  so  original  did  his  very  coarseness  render 
him.  Combine  all  the  conditions  of  the  brute,  and 
you  get  Caliban,  which  certainly  is  a  great  thing. 
Where  form  predominates,  sentiment  disappears. 
The  postmaster,  living  proof  of  this  axiom,  pre- 
sented one  of  those  countenances  in  which  a  thinker 
can  with  difficulty  trace  the  mind  beneath  the  vio- 
lent complexion  produced  by  a  rude  development  of 
the  flesh.  His  blue  cloth  cap,  small  peaked  and 
ribbed  like  a  melon,  outlined  a  head  whose  large 
dimensions  proved  that  Gall's  science  has  not  yet 
attacked  the  subject  of  exceptions.  The  gray  and 
almost  glossy  hair  projecting  beyond  the  cap  would 
have  told  you  that  other  causes  than  intellectual 


URSULE  MIROUET  7 

fatigue  or  sorrow  whiten  the  hair.  On  each  side 
of  the  head,  one  saw  large  ears,  almost  scarred  along 
the  edges  by  the  erosions  of  an  over-abundant  blood 
which  seemed  ready  to  gush  out  at  the  slightest 
exertion.  The  complexion  was  violet-hued  under  a 
brown  coating,  due  to  the  habit  of  facing  the  sun. 
The  eyes,  gray,  alert,  sunken  and  hidden  beneath 
two  black  bushes,  resembled  the  eyes  of  the  Kal- 
mucks, who  arrived  in  1815;  if  at  moments  they 
sparkled,  it  could  only  be  under  the  strain  of  some 
covetous  thought  The  nose,  depressed  at  the  root, 
suddenly  turned  up  like  the  leg  of  a  copper  pot 
Thick  lips  harmonizing  with  an  almost  repulsive 
double  chin,  the  beard  of  which,  shaved  hardly 
twice  a  week,  kept  a  wretched  silk  handkerchief 
in  a  threadbare  condition ;  a  neck  creased  with  fat, 
though  very  short;  and  huge  cheeks,  completing  the 
characteristics  of  stupid  power  that  sculptors  impart 
to  their  caryatids.  Minoret-Levrault  resembled 
these  statues  with  this  difference  merely,  that  they 
support  a  building,  and  he  had  enough  to  do  to  sup- 
port himself.  One  may  meet  many  such  an  Atlas 
without  a  world.  This  man's  head  and  shoulders 
were  like  a  block;  one  might  have  said,  those  of  a 
bull  raised  on  his  hind  legs.  The  stalwart  arms 
terminated  in  thick,  hard  hands,  big  and  powerful, 
that  could  and  did  handle  a  whip,  the  reins,  or  the 
pitchfork,  and  with  which  no  postilion  ever  trifled. 
This  giant's  enormous  stomach  was  supported  by 
thighs  as  thick  as  an  adult's  body,  and  by  the  feet 
of  an  elephant  Anger  must  have  been  rare  with 


8  URSULE  MIROUET 

this  man,  but  terrible  and  apoplectic  when  he  gave 
vent  to  it.  Although  violent  and  incapable  of  re- 
flection, this  man  had  done  nothing  to  justify  the 
sinister  prophecies  of  his  physiognomy.  His  pos- 
tilions would  say  to  those  who  quaked  before  the 
giant: 

"Oh!  he  is  not  bad!" 

The  master  of  Nemours,  to  use  an  abbreviation 
employed  in  many  countries,  wore  a  bottle-green 
velvet  shooting-jacket,  green  drill  trousers  with 
green  stripes,  an  ample  yellow  mohair  waistcoat,  in 
the  pocket  of  which  could  be  seen  a  monstrous  snuff- 
box outlined  by  a  black  circle.  A  big  snuff-box  for 
a  snub  nose,  is  a  law  almost  without  exception. 

Minoret-Levrault,  offspring  of  the  Revolution  and 
spectator  of  the  Empire,  had  never  mixed  himself 
up  with  politics;  as  for  his  religious  opinions,  he 
had  never  set  foot  inside  a  church  except  to  be  mar- 
ried; as  for  his  principles  in  private  life,  they 
existed  in  the  Civil  Code;  all  that  was  not  forbid- 
den or  unattainable  by  the  law  he  believed  to  be 
feasible.  He  had  never  read  anything  but  the 
newspaper  of  the  department  of  Seine-et-Oise,  or  a 
few  instructions  referring  to  his  profession.  He 
was  considered  to  be  a  skilful  farmer;  but  his 
knowledge  was  purely  practical.  Thus,  with  Mi- 
noret-Levrault, the  mind  did  not  belie  the  body.  It 
was  seldom,  too,  that  he  talked ;  and,  before  begin- 
ning to  speak,  he  always  took  a  pinch  of  snuff  to 
give  himself  time  to  seek,  not  ideas,  but  words. 
As  a  talker,  he  would  have  struck  one  as  a  failure. 


URSULE  MIROUET  9 

Considering  that  this  species  of  trunkless  and  unin- 
telligent elephant  was  named  Minor et-Levrault,  must 
one  not  admit  with  Sterne  the  occult  power  of  names 
that  sometimes  mock  and  sometimes  foretell  charac- 
ter? In  spite  of  his  obvious  incapacity,  in  thirty- 
six  years  he  had  with  the  help  of  the  Revolution, 
acquired  an  income  of  thirty  thousand  francs,  in 
fields,  arable  land,  and  forest  If  Minoret,  with  an 
interest  in  the  Nemours  stage,  and  those  running 
between  Gatinais  and  Paris,  still  worked,  he  was  in 
this  acting  less  through  habit  than  for  the  sake  of 
an  only  son  for  whom  he  wished  to  prepare  a  fine 
future.  This  son,  who  had  become  a  gentleman — 
as  the  peasants  termed  it — had  just  finished  reading 
for  the  bar,  and  when  the  courts  re-opened,  was  to 
take  the  oath  as  lawyer's  licentiate.  Monsieur  and 
Madame  Minoret-Levrault, — for,  through  this  giant 
everyone  discovered  a  wife  without  whom  such  a 
handsome  fortune  was  impossible, — left  their  son 
free  to  choose  a  profession  for  himself:  notary  in 
Paris,  attorney  for  the  crown  somewhere,  receiver- 
general  no  matter  where,  exchange  agent  or  post- 
master. What  whim  could  be  denied,  what  calling 
above  the  aspirations  of  the  son  of  a  man  of  whom 
it  was  said  from  Montargis  to  Essonnethat  "Father 
Minoret  cannot  count  his  income."  This  saying, 
four  years  before,  had  acquired  further  authority 
when,  after  having  sold  his  inn,  Minoret  had  built 
himself  a  magnificent  house  and  stables  by  trans- 
ferring the  stage  from  the  Grand 'Rue  to  the  har- 
bor. This  new  establishment  had  cost  two  hundred 


10  URSULE  MIROUET 

thousand  francs,  that  the  gossips  for  thirty  miles 
round  doubled.  The  Nemours  stage  requires  a  large 
number  of  horses,  it  goes  toward  Paris  as  far  as 
Fontainebleau  and  runs  beyond  the  Montargis  and 
Montereau  roads;  on  both  sides  the  stage  is  slow, 
and  the  sands  of  the  Montargis  road  warrant  that 
chimerical  third  horse  which  is  always  paid  for  and 
never  seen.  So  a  man  built  like  Minoret,  as  rich 
as  Minoret,  and  at  the  head  of  such  an  establish- 
ment could  call  himself  without  antiphrasis,  the 
master  of  Nemours.  Although  he  had  never  given 
a  thought  to  God  or  the  devil,  and  was  as  practical 
a  materialist  as  he  was  a  practical  farmer,  prac- 
tical egotist,  and  practical  miser,  Minoret  had,  up 
till  then,  enjoyed  unmixed  happiness,  if  one  may 
consider  a  purely  material  life  as  happiness.  A 
physiologist,  beholding  the  cushion  of  bare  flesh 
enveloping  the  last  vertebra  and  compressing  this 
man's  hind  brain,  and,  above  all,  hearing  the  clear, 
shrill  voice  which  contrasted  so  ludicrously  with 
his  chest  and  shoulders,  would  have  perfectly  under- 
stood why  this  big,  stout,  thickset  farmer  adored 
his  only  son,  and  why,  perhaps,  he  had  waited  so 
long  for  him,  as  the  child's  name  of  Desire  suffi- 
ciently explained.  In  short,  if  love,  by  betraying  a 
rich  organization,  is,  in  man,  a  promise  of  the 
grandest  things,  then  philosophers  will  understand 
the  causes  of  Minoret's  incapacity.  The  mother, 
whom  the  son  fortunately  resembled,  vied  with  the 
father  in  spoiling  him.  No  natural  child  could  have 
resisted  this  idolatry.  So  Desire,  knowing  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  II 

extent  of  his  power,  knew  how  to  drain  his  mother's 
money-box  and  take  from  his  father's  purse  whilst 
pretending  to  both  authors  of  his  being  that  he  was 
only  applying  to  the  one.  Desire,  who,  at  Nemours 
bore  a  part  infinitely  superior  to  that  of  a  royal 
prince  in  his  father's  capital,  had  wished  to  gratify 
all  his  caprices  in  Paris  as  he  had  gratified  them 
in  his  own  small  town,  and,  every  year,  he  had 
there  spent  more  than  twelve  thousand  francs.  But, 
for  this  sum,  he  had  also  acquired  ideas  that  would 
never  have  come  to  him  in  Nemours;  he  had 
sloughed  off  the  provincial  skin,  he  had  understood 
the  power  of  money  and  foresaw  a  means  of  prefer- 
ment in  the  bench.  During  this  last  year,  he  had 
spent  an  additional  ten  thousand  francs,  by  forming 
connections  with  artists,  with  journalists  and  their 
mistresses.  A  somewhat  disquieting  confidential 
letter  to  the  postmaster,  whose  help  his  son  had 
asked  in  a  marriage,  would,  at  a  pinch,  have  ex- 
plained his  mounting  guard;  but  Mother  Minoret- 
Levrault,  busy  preparing  a  sumptuous  luncheon  to 
celebrate  the  triumph  and  the  return  of  the  licentiate 
in  law,  had  sent  her  husband  on  the  road,  bidding 
him  ride  on  if  he  did  not  see  the  diligence.  The 
coach  which  was  to  bring  this  only  son,  usually 
arrives  at  Nemours  about  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  nine  o'clock  was  striking! 

What  could  cause  such  delay  ?  Had  there  been  an 
upset?  Was  Desire  alive?  Had  he  merely  a 
broken  leg? 

Three  thundering  cracks  of  a  whip  explode  and 


12  URSULE  MIROUET 

rend  the  air  like  musket-shots,  the  red  waistcoats 
of  the  postilions  appear,  the  horses  neigh!  the 
master  takes  off  his  cap  and  waves  it,  he  is  seen. 
The  best  mounted  postilion,  the  one  who  was 
bringing  back  two  dapple-gray  road  horses,  sets 
spurs  to  his  near-horse,  outstrips  five  great  coach 
horses,  the  Minorets  of  the  stable,  three  carriage 
horses,  and  arrives  in  front  of  the  master. 

"Have  you  seen  la  Dueler?  " 

On  the  highroads,  coaches  are  given  rather 
fanciful  names;  they  say  la  Caillard,  la  Dueler— 
the  coach  from  Nemours  to  Paris — le  Grand-Bureau. 
Every  fresh  undertaking  is  called  la  Concurrence. 
At  the  time  of  the  Lecomtes*  enterprise,  their  car- 
riages were  called  la  Comtesse.  "Caillard  has  not 
overtaken  la  Comtesse,  but  the  Grand-Bureau  has 
fairly  taken  the  shine  out  of  her  all  the  same! 
La  Caillard  and  the  Grand-Bureau  have  sunk  les 
Frangaises — the  French  stage  coaches."  If  you  see 
the  postilion  going  at  a  breakneck  speed  and  refus- 
ing a  glass  of  wine,  question  the  guard;  he  will 
answer,  sniffing  the  wind  and  looking  into  space: 
"La  Concurrence  is  ahead!" — "And  we  do  not  see 
it !"  says  the  postilion. — "The  villain,  he  can't  have 
allowed  the  passengers  to  eat!"  "Has  he  any?" 
replies  the  guard.  "Then  whip  up  Polignac!"  All 
bad  horses  are  called  Polignac.  Such  are  the  jokes 
and  the  stock  of  conversation  between  the  postilions 
and  guards  on  top  of  the  coaches.  Every  profession 
has  its  slang  in  France. 

"Did  you  look  inside  la  Dueler?" 


URSULE  MIROUET  13 

"Monsieur  Desire?"  replied  the  postilion,  inter- 
rupting his  master.  "Eh !  you  must  have  heard  us, 
our  whips  must  have  told  you  enough,  we  quite 
thought  you  were  on  the  road." 

"Then  why  is  the  coach  four  hours  late?" 

"The  tire  of  one  of  the  back  wheels  fell  off  be- 
tween Essonne  and  Ponthierry.  But  there  was  no 
accident;  at  the  hill,  Cabirolle  happily  noticed  the 
matter." 

At  this  moment,  a  woman  dressed  in  her  Sunday 
clothes,  for  the  pealing  of  the  Nemours  bell  was 
summoning  the  inhabitants  to  the  Sunday  mass — a 
woman  about  thirty-six  years  old  approached  the 
postmaster. 

"Well,  cousin,"  she  said,  "you  never  would  be- 
lieve me!  Our  uncle  is  in  the  Grand'Rue  with 
Ursule  and  they  are  going  to  High  Mass." 

In  spite  of  the  rules  of  modern  poetry  about  local 
color,  it  is  impossible  to  carry  truth  so  far  as  to  re- 
peat the  frightful  abuse  mingled  with  oaths  that 
this  news,  apparently  so  little  dramatic,  called  forth 
from  Minoret-Levrault's  great  mouth;  his  shrill 
voice  hissed  and  his  face  presented  the  effect  so 
ingeniously  termed  by  the  people,  a  Sunstroke. 

"Are  you  sure?"  he  said  after  the  first  explosion 
of  anger. 

The  postilions  passed  with  their  horses,  saluting 
their  master,  who  seemed  neither  to  see  nor  to  hear 
them.  Instead  of  waiting  for  his  son,  Minoret- 
Levrault  turned  back  up  the  Grand'Rue  with  his' 
cousin. 


14  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Have  I  not  always  told  you  so?"  she  resumed, 
"when  Doctor  Minoret  has  lost  his  mind,  this  de- 
mure little  chit  will  make  him  take  to  religion;  and 
as  whoever  holds  the  mind  holds  the  purse-strings, 
she  will  have  our  inheritance." 

"But,  Madame  Massin — !"  said  the  postmaster, 
stupefied. 

"Ah!  you  too,"  replied  Madame  Massin,  inter- 
rupting her  cousin,  "you  are  going  to  tell  me  like 
Massin:  'Can  a  little  girl  of  fifteen  invent  such 
plans  and  execute  them  ?  shake  the  opinions  of  a 
man  of  eighty-three  years  of  age,  who  has  never 
set  foot  in  a  church  but  to  be  married,  who  holds 
the  priests  in  such  horror  that  he  did  not  even  ac- 
company this  child  to  the  parish  church  the  day  of 
her  first  Communion  ?'  Well  then,  why,  if  Doctor 
Minoret  detests  the  priests,  has  he  for  fifteen  years 
spent  nearly  every  evening  in  the  week  with  the 
Abbe  Chaperon?  The  old  hypocrite  has  never 
failed  to  give  Ursule  twenty  francs  for  candles  when 
she  gives  back  the  consecrated  bread.  Then  you 
have  forgotten  the  gift  Ursule  gave  the  church  as 
thanks  to  the  cure  for  having  prepared  her  for  her 
first  Communion  ?  She  spent  all  her  money  on  it, 
and  her  godfather  gave  it  back  to  her,  but  doubled. 
You  men  notice  nothing!  When  I  heard  these  par- 
ticulars, I  said,  'Good-bye  our  hopes!  all  is  over!' 
An  uncle  with  an  inheritance  does  not  act  like  this 
purposelessly,  toward  a  little  sniveller  picked  out 
of  the  street." 

"Bah!  cousin,"  replied  the  postmaster,  "perhaps 


URSULE  MIROUET  15 

the  old  man  is  taking  Ursule  accidentally  to  church. 
It  is  fine,  and  our  uncle  is  going  for  a  walk." 

"Cousin,  our  uncle  holds  a  prayer-book;  and  he 
has  a  hypocritical  look!  In  short,  you  will  see 
him." 

"They  were  hiding  their  game  very  well," 
answered  the  big  postmaster,  "for  La  Bougival  told 
me  that  there  was  never  any  question  of  religion 
between  the  doctor  and  the  Abbe  Chaperon.  Be- 
sides, the  cure  of  Nemours  is  the  most  honest  man 
in  the  world,  he  would  give  his  last  shirt  to  a  beg- 
gar; he  is  incapable  of  a  mean  action;  and  dissipat- 
ing an  inheritance  is — " 

"But  it  is  robbery,"  said  Madame  Massin. 

"It's  worse!"  cried  Minoret-Levrault,  exasper- 
ated by  his  garrulous  cousin's  remark. 

"I  know,"  replied  Madame  Massin,  "that  the 
Abbe  Chaperon,  although  a  priest,  is  an  honest  man ; 
but  he  is  capable  of  anything  for  the  poor !  He  will 
have  bored,  and  bored,  and  bored  beneath  my  uncle, 
and  the  doctor  will  have  sunk  into  bigotry.  We 
were  quite  easy,  and  here  he  is  perverted.  A  man 
who  has  never  believed  in  anything  and  who  had 
principles!  Oh!  we  are  all  done  for.  My  husband 
is  all  upset  about  it" 

Madame  Massin,  whose  words  were  like  so  many 
arrows  stinging  her  big  cousin,  made  him  walk 
along,  in  spite  of  his  embonpoint,  as  rapidly  as  her- 
self to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  people  who 
were  going  to  mass.  She  wanted  to  overtake  this 
uncle  Minoret  and  point  him  out  to  the  postmaster. 


16  URSULE  MIROUET 

On  the  Gatinais  side,  Nemours  is  overlooked  by 
a  hill,  along  which  extends  the  road  of  Montargis 
and  the  Loing.  The  church,  over  whose  stones 
time  has  spread  its  rich  black  cloak — for  it  was 
undoubtedly  rebuilt  in  the  fourteenth  century  by 
the  Guises  for  whom  Nemours  was  erected  into  a 
duchy-peerage,  stands  up  at  the  end  of  the  little 
town,  enframed  at  the  base  of  a  great  arch.  For 
public  buildings  as  for  men,  position  is  everything. 
Shaded  by  several  trees,  and  thrown  up  by  a  neat 
square,  this  solitary  church  produced  an  imposing 
effect  In  emerging  on  the  square,  the  master  of 
Nemours  could  see  his  uncle  giving  his  arm  to  the 
young  girl  called  Ursule,  each  holding  a  prayer- 
book  and  going  into  the  church.  The  old  man 
removed  his  hat  in  the  porch,  and  his  head,  entirely 
white,  like  a  snow-capped  pinnacle,  shone  in  the 
soft  shadows  of  the  facade. 

"Well,  Minoret,  what  do  you  say  to  your  uncle's 
conversion?"  cried  the  tax-collector  of  Nemours, 
named  Cremiere. 

"What  would  you  have  me  say?"  replied  the 
postmaster,  offering  him  a  pinch  of  snuff. 

"Well  answered,  pere  Levrault!  you  cannot  say 
what  you  think,  if  a  famous  author  was  right  in 
writing  that  man  is  obliged  to  think  his  words 
before  speaking  his  thought,"  maliciously  cried  a 
young  man  who  had  come  up,  and  who,  in  Nemours, 
played  the  r61e  of  Mephistopheles  in  Faust. 

This  horrid  fellow,  called  Goupil,  was  the  head 
clerk  of  Monsieur  Cremiere-Dionis,  the  notary  of 


THE   CHURCH  AT  NEMOURS. 


The  master  of  Nemours  could  see  Jus  uncle  giving 
his  arm  to  tlie  young  girl  called  Ursule,  each  holding 
a  prayer-book  and  going  into  the  church.  The  old 
man  removed  his  hat  in  the  porch,  and  his  head, 
entirely  white,  like  a  snow-capped  pinnacle,  shone  in 
the  soft  shadows  of  the  facade. 

"  Well,  Minor et,  what  do  you  say  to  your  uncle's 
conversion  ?  "  cried  the  tax-collector  of  Nemours. 


URSULE  MIROUET  17 

Nemours.  In  spite  of  past  behavior  of  an  almost 
debauched  lowness,  Dionis  had  taken  Goupil  into 
his  office,  when  further  sojourn  in  Paris,  where  the 
clerk  had  dissipated  the  inheritance  of  his  father, 
a  well-to-do  farmer  who  had  destined  him  for  a 
notary,  was  forbidden  him  by  absolute  poverty. 
Upon  seeing  Goupil,  you  would  at  once  have  under- 
stood that  he  had  lost  no  time  in  enjoying  life;  for, 
to  obtain  enjoyment,  he  must  have  paid  dearly.  In 
spite  of  his  small  stature,  at  twenty-seven  years  old 
the  clerk's  chest  and  shoulders  were  as  developed 
as  those  of  a  man  of  forty.  Slender,  short  legs,  a 
large  face  the  color  of  a  sky  before  a  storm  and 
crowned  by  a  bald  forehead,  still  further  brought 
out  this  strange  conformation.  His  face  also  seemed 
to  belong  to  a  humpback  whose  hump  must  have 
been  inside.  One  peculiarity  of  this  sharp,  pale 
face  confirmed  the  existence  of  this  invisible  hunch- 
back. Curved  and  twisted  like  that  of  so  many 
hunchbacks,  the  nose  bent  from  right  to  left  instead 
of  accurately  dividing  the  face.  The  mouth,  con- 
tracted at  both  corners  like  those  of  the  Sardinians, 
was  always  on  the  lookout  for  irony.  Thin  red- 
dish hair  fell  in  straight  locks,  and  in  places  dis- 
closed the  skull.  The  hands,  coarse  and  badly  set 
at  the  end  of  over-long  arms,  were  crooked  and 
rarely  clean.  Goupil  was  wearing  shoes  only  fit  to 
throw  into  a  rubbish  heap,  and  thread  stockings  of 
a  reddish  black;  his  trousers  and  black  coat,  worn 
threadbare  and  almost  thick  with  dirt;  his  pitiful 
waistcoats,  several  buttons  of  which  were  short  of 


18  URSULE  MIROUET 

covering;  the  old  silk  handkerchief  which  did  duty 
for  a  tie,  his  whole  dress  told  of  the  cynical  wretch- 
edness to  which  his  passions  condemned  him. 

Two  eyes  like  goats',  with  the  eyeballs  encircled 
with  yellow,  both  lascivious  and  cowardly,  rose 
about  this  ensemble  of  forbidding  things.  Nobody 
was  more  feared  or  respected  in  Nemours  than  Gou- 
pil.  Armed  with  pretensions  allowed  by  his  ugliness, 
he  had  that  detestable  intelligence  peculiar  to  those 
who  give  themselves  free  license,  and  he  used  it  to 
avenge  the  disappointments  of  a  ceaseless  jealousy. 
He  rhymed  satirical  couplets  that  are  sung  at  carni- 
vals, he  organized  mock  serenades,  he  alone  wrote 
the  little  newspaper  of  the  town.  Dionis,  a  cun- 
ning, insincere  man,  but  timid  for  all  that,  kept 
Goupil  as  much  from  fear  as  on  account  of  his  ex- 
ceeding intelligence  and  his  sound  knowledge  of  the 
concerns  of  the  country.  But  the  master  so  much 
distrusted  the  clerk,  that  he  kept  the  accounts  him- 
self, did  not  lodge  him  in  his  own  house,  kept  him 
at  a  distance,  and  never  entrusted  him  with  any 
secret  or  delicate  affair.  Therefore  the  clerk  flat- 
tered his  employer  by  hiding  the  resentment  that 
this  behavior  caused  him,  and  he  watched  Madame 
Dionis  with  an  idea  of  vengeance.  Being  gifted 
with  keen  apprehension,  work  was  no  labor  to  him. 

"Oh!  you,  you  are  already  mocking  our  misfor- 
tune," replied  the  postmaster  to  the  clerk,  who  was 
rubbing  his  hands. 

As  Goupil  meanly  humored  all  the  passions  of 
Desire,  who  for  five  years  had  made  a  companion  of 


URSULE  MIROUET  19 

him,  the  postmaster  treated  him  rather  roughly, 
without  suspecting  what  terrible  hoard  of  ill-will 
was  accumulating  at  the  bottom  of  Goupil's  heart  at 
every  fresh  injury.  After  having  reckoned  that 
money  was  more  necessary  to  himself  than  to  any- 
one else,  the  clerk,  who  knew  himself  to  be  superior 
to  all  the  bourgeoisie  of  Nemours,  wanted  to  make  a 
fortune,  and  counted  on  Desire's  friendship  to  be 
able  to  buy  one  of  the  three  offices  of  the  town,  that 
of  clerk  to  the  justice  of  the  peace,  one  of  the  sheriff's 
offices  or  that  occupied  by  Dionis.  And  so  he 
patiently  bore  the  postmaster's  tirades  and  Madame 
Minoret-Levrault's  contempt,  and  he  played  an  in- 
famous part  with  Desire,  who  for  two  years  had 
left  him  to  console  the  Ariadnes,  victims  of  the  close 
of  the  holidays.  In  this  way,  Goupil  devoured  the 
crumbs  of  the  feasts  he  had  prepared. 

"Had  I  been  the  old  man's  nephew,  he  would  not 
have  made  God  my  joint-heir,"  replied  the  clerk, 
displaying  scant,  black,  menacing  teeth  in  a  hideous 
sneer. 

At  this  moment,  Massin-Levrault  junior,  clerk  of 
the  justice  of  the  peace,  joined  his  wife,  bringing 
with  him  Madame  Cremiere,  wife  of  the  tax-gath- 
erer of  Nemours.  This  person,  one  of  the  sharpest 
citizens  in  the  little  town,  had  the  physiognomy  of 
a  Tartar;  little  round  eyes  like  sloes,  under  a  low 
forehead,  woolly  hair,  an  oily  skin,  big  ears  without 
edges,  a  mouth  with  hardly  any  lip,  and  a  scanty 
beard.  His  manner  had  the  merciless  humility  of 
a  usurer,  whose  line  of  conduct  rests  upon  fixed 


20  URSULE  MIROUET 

principles.  He  spoke  like  a  man  who  suffers  from 
loss  of  voice.  In  short,  in  order  to  portray  him,  it 
suffices  to  say  that  he  employed  his  eldest  daughter 
and  his  wife  to  make  copies  of  the  trials. 

Madame  Cremierewas  a  stout  woman  with  doubt- 
ful yellow  hair,  a  complexion  covered  with  freckles, 
a  little  too  tightly  squeezed  into  her  dresses,  was 
connected  with  Madame  Dionis,  and  passed  as  well- 
informed  because  she  read  novels.  This  financier 
of  the  lowest  order,  full  of  pretensions  to  wit  and 
beauty,  was  waiting  for  her  uncle's  inheritance  to 
take  up  a  certain  style,  to  decorate  her  salon  and 
there  receive  the  bourgeoisie;  for  her  husband  re- 
fused to  give  her  the  Carcel  lamps,  the  lithographs 
and  the  useless  knickknacks  she  saw  at  the  house 
of  the  notary's  wife.  She  had  an  excessive  dread 
of  Goupil,  who  used  to  watch  for  and  hawk  about 
her  capsulinguettes — her  rendering  of  the  word  lapsus 
linguce. — One  day,  Madame  Dionis  was  saying  she 
did  not  know  what  water  to  use  for  her  teeth. 

"Take  an  opiate,"  she  replied. 

Nearly  all  the  collateral  heirs  of  old  Doctor  Minoret 
now  found  themselves  assembled  in  the  square,  and 
the  importance  of  the  event  which  was  stirring 
them  up  was  so  generally  felt,  that  the  groups  of 
peasants,  armed  with  their  red  umbrellas,  all  clothed 
in  the  dazzling  colors  which  make  them  so  pictur- 
esque on  fgte  days  on  the  roads,  had  their  eyes  upon 
the  Minoret  heirs.  In  the  little  towns  which  are 
something  between  the  big  boroughs  and  the  cities, 
those  who  do  not  go  to  mass  remain  in  the  square. 


URSULE  MIROUET  21 

They  talk  business.  At  Nemours,  the  hour  for 
divine  service  was  also  that  of  a  weekly  exchange, 
often  attended  by  the  masters  of  dwellings  scattered 
within  a  circuit  of  half  a  mile.  This  explains  the 
understanding  between  the  peasants  against  the 
bourgeois  in  relation  to  the  prices  of  provisions  and 
of  manual  labor. 

"And  what  would  you  have  done?"  said  the  mas- 
ter of  Nemours  to  Goupil. 

"I  should  have  made  myself  as  necessary  to  his 
life  as  the  air  he  breathes.  But,  in  the  first  place, 
you  have  not  known  how  to  take  him !  An  inher- 
itance requires  as  much  care  as  a  beautiful  woman, 
and,  for  want  of  attention,  they  both  escape.  If 
my  mistress  were  here,"  he  resumed,  "she  would 
tell  you  how  true  the  simile  is." 

"But  Monsieur  Bongrand  has  just  told  me  not 
to  make  ourselves  uneasy,"  replied  the  justice's 
clerk. 

"Oh!  there  are  many  ways  of  saying  that," 
answered  Goupil,  laughing.  "I  should  like  to  have 
heard  your  sly  justice  of  the  peace!  If  there  was 
nothing  more  to  be  done;  if,  like  him  who  lives 
with  your  uncle,  I  knew  all  was  lost,  I  should  tell 
you  'not  to  worry  about  anything!' 

Whilst  pronouncing  these  last  words,  Goupil  wore 
so  comical  a  smile  and  gave  it  so  clear  a  meaning, 
that  the  heirs  suspected  the  clerk  of  having  been 
taken  in  by  the  cunning  of  the  justice  of  the  peace. 
The  tax-collector,  a  fat  little  man,  as  insignificant 
as  a  tax-collector  ought  to  be,  and  as  unimportant 


22  URSULE  MIROUET 

as  a  sensible  woman  could  wish,  crushed  his  co-heir 
Massin  by:  "I  told  you  so!" 

As  double-dealing  people  always  ascribe  their  own 
duplicity  to  others,  Massin  scowled  at  the  justice  of 
the  peace,  who  was  talking  just  then  close  to  the 
church  with  the  Marquis  du  Rouvre,  one  of  his 
former  clients. 

"If  I  were  only  sure  of  it!"  he  said. 

"You  would  paralyze  the  protection  he  grants  to 
the  Marquis  du  Rouvre,  who  has  been  arrested,  and 
whom  he  is  at  this  moment  soaking  with  advice," 
said  Goupil,  insinuating  an  idea  of  revenge  into 
the  clerk,  "but  go  gently  with  your  chief;  the  old 
man  is  artful,  he  must  have  some  influence  over 
your  uncle,  and  may  still  prevent  him  from  leaving 
all  to  the  Church." 

"Bah !  we  shan't  die  of  it, "  said  Minoret-Levrault, 
opening  his  enormous  snuff-box. 

"You  will  not  live  by  it  either,"  replied  Goupil, 
causing  shivers  to  the  two  women,  who  were  quicker 
than  their  husbands  to  construe  into  privation  the 
loss  of  this  inheritance  so  often  laid  out  in  com- 
forts. "But  we  will  drown  this  little  trouble  in 
floods  of  champagne  in  celebrating  Desire's  return, 
eh,  gros  pdre?"  he  added,  tapping  the  giant's 
stomach  and  thus  inviting  himself  for  fear  of  being 
forgotten. 

Before  proceeding  any  further,  perhaps  exact 
people  will  like  to  find  here  beforehand  some  kind 
of  a  titular  inventory,  rather  necessary  moreover, 
to  learn  the  degrees  of  relationship  which  bound 


URSULE  MIROUET  23 

the  old  man,  so  suddenly  converted,  to  these  three 
fathers  of  families  and  their  wives.  These  cross- 
ings of  race  in  the  depths  of  the  provinces  may 
give  grounds  for  more  than  ordinary  instructive 
reflection. 


At  Nemours,  there  are  only  three  or  four  house- 
holds of  unknown  gentry,  prominent  amongst  these 
being  that  of  the  Portenduere.  These  exclusive 
families  frequent  only  the  nobles  who  own  the  land 
or  the  chateaux  in  the  neighborhood,  amongst  whom 
may  be  singled  out  the  d'Aiglemonts,  owners  of  the 
fine  estate  of  Saint-Lange,  and  the  Marquis  du 
Rouvre,  for  whose  property,  overwhelmed  with 
mortgages,  the  bourgeois  were  on  the  lookout  The 
nobles  of  the  town  were  poor.  For  all  estate,  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere  possessed  a  farm  yielding  four 
thousand  seven  hundred  francs  income,  and  her  town 
house.  Against  this  little  Faubourg  Saint-Germain 
were  grouped  half  a  score  of  rich  men,  former  millers, 
retired  merchants,  in  a  word,  a  miniature  bourgeoisie 
under  whom  revolved  small  retail  dealers,  working 
men  and  peasants.  This  bourgeoisie,  like  that  of 
the  Swiss  cantons  and  several  other  small  countries, 
presents  the  curious  spectacle  of  the  irradiation  of  a 
few  aboriginal  families,  probably  Gallic,  reigning 
over  one  territory,  overrunning  it  and  making  the 
inhabitants  all  cousins.  Under  Louis  XI.,  epoch  in 
which  the  third  Estate  ended  by  turning  its  nick- 
names into  real  names,  several  of  which  became 
mingled  with  those  of  feudalism,  the  bourgeoisie 
of  Nemours  consisted  of  Minoret,  de  Massin,  de 
Levrault  andde  Cremi£re.  Under  Louis  XIII.,  these 
(25) 


26  URSULE  MIROUET 

four  families  already  produced  the  Massin-Cremiere, 
the  Levrault-Massin,  the  Massin-Minoret,  the  Mino- 
ret-Minoret,  the  Cremiere-Levrault,  the  Levrault- 
Minoret-Massin,  the  Massin-Levrault,  the  Minoret- 
Massin,  the  Massin-Massin,  the  Cremiere-Massin, 
all  this  varied  with  junior,  senior,  Cremiere-Fran- 
cois,  Levrault- Jacques,  Jean-Minoret,  enough  to 
distract  the  father  Anselm  of  the  people,  if  the  peo- 
ple had  ever  wanted  a  genealogist.  The  variations 
in  the  four  elements  of  this  domestic  kaleidoscope 
became  so  complicated  by  births  and  marriages,  that 
the  genealogical  tree  of  the  citizens  of  Nemours 
would  have  puzzled  even  the  benedictines  of  the 
Gotha  almanac,  in  spite  of  the  atomical  science 
with  which  they  arrange  the  zigzags  of  the  German 
alliances.  For  a  long  time,  the  Minorets  occupied 
the  tanneries,  the  Cremieres  held  the  mills,  the 
Massins  applied  themselves  to  trade,  and  the 
Levraults  remained  farmers.  Happily  for  the  coun- 
try, these  four  stems  spread  instead  of  pivoting,  or 
had  thrust  out  fresh  shoots  by  exiling  children  who 
sought  their  fortunes  abroad ;  there  are  Minoret  cut- 
lers in  Melun,  some  Levraults  in  Montargis,  Massins 
in  Orleans  and  Cremieres  of  importance  in  Paris. 
The  destinies  of  these  bees  from  the  mother  hive  are 
very  varied.  Rich  Massins  necessarily  employ 
Massin  workmen,  in  the  same  way  as  there  are 
German  princes  in  the  service  of  Austria  or  Prussia. 
The  same  province  sees  a  Minoret  millionaire 
guarded  by  a  Minoret  soldier.  Filled  with  the  same 
blood  and  called  by  the  same  name  to  all  similarity, 


URSULE  MIROUET  27 

these  four  shuttles  had  unceasingly  woven  a  human 
canvas,  every  shred  of  which  happened  to  be  gown 
or  towel,  superb  cambric  or  coarse  lining.  The 
same  blood  ran  in  the  head,  in  the  feet  or  the  heart, 
in  the  industrious  hands,  in  diseased  lungs  or  in  a 
brow,  big  with  genius.  The  heads  of  the  clan  dwelt 
faithfully  in  the  little  town,  where  the  ties  of  kin- 
dred slackened  or  contracted  at  the  will  of  events 
enacted  by  this  strange  cognomenism.  In  whatever 
country  you  go,  change  the  names  and  you  will 
recognize  the  fact,  but  without  the  poetry  that  feud- 
alism imparted  to  it  and  that  Walter  Scott  has  re- 
produced with  so  much  talent.  Let  us  look  higher 
and  examine  human  nature  in  history.  All  the 
noble  families  of  the  eleventh  century,  now  almost  all 
extinct,  except  the  royal  race  of  the  Capets,  have 
necessarily  all  co-operated  in  the  birth  of  a  Rohan, 
a  Montmorency,  a  Bauffremont,  and  a  Mortemart  of 
to-day ;  in  fact  they  must  all  necessarily  be  in  the 
blood  of  the  last  gentleman  who  is  truly  a  gentleman. 
In  other  words,  every  bourgeois  is  cousin  to  a  bour- 
geois, and  every  nobleman,  cousin  to  a  nobleman. 
As  it  says  in  the  sublime  pages  of  the  biblical 
genealogies,  in  a  thousand  years,  three  families, 
Shem,  Ham  and  Japheth,  can  cover  the  globe  with 
their  children.  A  family  can  become  a  nation,  and, 
unfortunately,  a  nation  can  once  more  become  a 
single,  simple  family.  To  prove  this,  it  suffices  to 
apply  to  the  investigation  of  ancestors  and  their 
accumulation  that  time  increases  in  a  retrograde 
geometrical  progression  multiplied  by  itself,  the 


28  URSULE  MIROUET 

calculation  of  that  sage,  who,  when  asking  a  Per- 
sian king,  as  a  reward  for  having  invented  the  game 
of  chess,  to  give  him  one  ear  of  corn  for  the  first 
square  of  the  chess-board  whilst  always  doubling  it, 
demonstrated  that  the  kingdom  itself  would  not 
suffice  to  pay  it  The  network  of  nobility  encir- 
cled by  the  network  of  the  bourgeoisie,  this  antag- 
onism of  two  races,  the  one  protected  by  immovable 
institutions,  the  other  by  the  active  patience  of 
work  and  the  wiles  of  trade,  produced  the  revolution 
of  1789.  The  two  races,  almost  reunited,  stand  to- 
day face  to  face  with  collateral  heirs  without  any 
inheritance.  What  are  they  going  to  do?  Our 
political  future  is  pregnant  with  the  reply. 

The  family  of  him  who  under  Louis  XV.  called 
himself  simply  Minoret,  was  so  numerous,  that  one 
of  the  five  children,  the  Minoret  whose  entrance 
into  the  church  created  a  sensation,  went  to  seek 
his  fortune  in  Paris,  and  only  appeared  at  long  inter- 
vals in  his  native  town,  where,  upon  the  death  of  his 
grandparents,  he  doubtless  came  to  fetch  his  share 
of  the  inheritance.  After  having  suffered  a  great 
deal,  like  all  young  people  gifted  with  a  strong  will 
and  who  wish  to  hold  a  place  in  the  brilliant  society 
of  Paris,  the  child  of  the  Minorets  created  for  himself 
a  finer  destiny  than  he  had  perhaps  ever  dreamt  of 
at  the  outset;  for  he  had  at  once  devoted  himself  to 
medicine,  one  of  the  professions  which  require  talent 
and  luck,  but  even  more  luck  than  talent  Sup- 
ported by  Dupont — of  Nemours, — connected  by  a 
lucky  chance  with  the  Abbe  Morellet  that  Voltaire 


URSULE  MIROUET  2Q 

used  to  call  Mords-les,  and  protected  by  the  encyclo- 
pedists, Doctor  Minoret  attached  himself  like  a  sat- 
ellite to  the  great  doctor  Bordeu,  Diderot's  friend. 
D'Alembert,  Helvetius,  Baron  d'Holbach,  and 
Grimm,  before  whom  he  was  a  mere  lad,  doubtless 
ended,  like  Bordeu,  by  interesting  themselves  in 
Minoret,  who,  about  1777,  had  a  fairly  large  practice 
of  deists,  encyclopedists,  sensualists,  and  material- 
ists, whatever  you  like  to  call  the  rich  philosophers 
of  those  times.  Although  he  was  in  no  way  a 
quack,  he  invented  the  famous  balsam  of  Lelievre, 
so  much  praised  by  the  Mercure  de  France,  the  adver- 
tisement of  which  was  always  at  the  end  of  this 
newspaper,  the  weekly  organ  of  the  encyclopedists. 
The  apothecary  Lelievre,  a  clever  man,  saw  a 
speculation  in  what  Minoret  had  only  looked  upon 
as  a  preparation  to  be  placed  in  the  pharmacopoeia, 
and  loyally  he  had  shared  his  profits  with  the 
doctor,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Rouelle's  in  chemistry, 
as  he  had  been  Bordeu's  in  medicine.  One  might 
have  been  a  materialist  for  less.  In  1778,  period 
when  la  Nouvelle  Heloise  reigned  and  people  some- 
times married  for  love,  the  doctor  made  a  love  match 
with  the  daughter  of  a  famous  harpsichord  player, 
Valentin  Mirouet,  a  celebrated  musician,  weak  and 
delicate,  who  was  killed  by  the  Revolution.  Min- 
oret was  intimately  acquainted  with  Robespierre, 
to  whom  he  had  formerly  given  a  gold  medal  for 
an  essay  upon  the  following  subject:  What  is  the 
origin  of  the  opinion  which  spreads  over  the  whole 
family  part  of  the  shame  attached  to  the  ignominious 


30  URSULE  MIROUET 

penalties  endured  by  a  culprit?  Is  this  opinion  more 
harmful  than  effective  ?  And,  if  it  should  be  decided 
for  the  affirmative,  what  means  should  be  employed  to 
guard  against  the  disadvantages  resulting  from  this  ? 
The  Royal  Academy  of  Science  and  Art  at  Metz,  to 
which  Minoret  belonged,  must  have  the  original  of 
this  essay.  Although,  thanks  to  this  friendship, 
the  doctor's  wife  had  nothing  to  apprehend,  she 
was  so  afraid  of  going  to  the  scaffold,  that  this  un- 
conquerable terror  aggravated  the  aneurism  which 
she  owed  to  an  exaggerated  sensitiveness.  In  spite 
of  all  the  precautions  that  an  adoring  man  could  take 
for  his  wife,  Ursule  met  the  cart  full  of  the  con- 
demned, in  which  was  Madame  Roland,  and  this 
sight  caused  her  death.  Minoret,  full  of  tenderness 
for  his  Ursule,  to  whom  he  had  refused  nothing  and 
who  had  led  a  life  of  studied  elegance,  found  him- 
self almost  poor  after  he  had  lost  her.  Robespierre 
had  him  appointed  head  physician  to  a  hospital. 

Although,  during  the  animated  altercations  to 
which  mesmerism  gave  rise,Minoret's  name  acquired 
a  celebrity  which  recalled  him  from  time  to  time  to 
his  parents,  the  Revolution  was  so  great  a  dissolvent 
and  so  broke  up  family  connections  that,  in  1813, 
Nemours  was  entirely  unaware  of  the  existence  of 
Doctor  Minoret,  who  was  led  by  an  unforeseen 
chance  to  conceive  the  idea  of  returning,  like  a 
hare,  to  die  at  home. 

Whilst  traveling  through  France,  where  the  eye 
so  quickly  wearies  of  the  monotony  of  the  plains, 
who  is  there  that  has  not  felt  the  delicious  sensation 


URSULE  MIROUET  31 

from  the  top  of  a  hill,  from  its  slope  or  at  the  turn, 
just  when  the  promise  is  of  a  barren  landscape,  of 
discovering  a  fresh  valley  watered  by  a  river,  and 
a  little  town  sheltered  under  the  rock  like  a  hive  in 
the  hollow  of  an  old  willow  ?  At  the  sound  of  the 
Hue!  of  the  postilion  who  is  walking  beside  his 
horses,  one  shakes  off  sleep,  one  admires  as  a  dream 
within  a  dream  some  beautiful  landscape  which  is 
to  the  traveler  what  a  remarkable  passage  in  a  book 
is  to  a  reader,  one  of  Nature's  brilliant  thoughts. 
Such  is  the  sensation  caused  by  the  sudden  view  of 
Nemours  when  one  arrives  there  from  Bourgogne. 
From  there  it  is  seen,  encircled  by  bare,  gray, 
white  and  black  rocks,  weirdly  shaped,  like  those 
that  are  so  often  found  in  the  forest  of  Fontaine- 
bleau,  and  from  which  the  scattered  trees  shoot  up, 
standing  clearly  out  against  the  sky  and  giving  a 
wild  appearance  to  this  species  of  crumbled  wall. 
There  the  long  forest  hill  ends  which  slopes  from 
Nemours  to  Bouron  while  skirting  the  road.  At  the 
bottom  of  this  crude  amphitheatre  stretches  a  field 
where  the  Loing  flows,  forming  sheeted  waterfalls. 
This  delicious  landscape,  which  follows  the  Mon- 
targis  road,  resembles  an  opera  scene,  so  studied  are 
the  effects.  One  morning,  the  doctor,  whom  a  rich 
invalid  in  Bourgogne  had  summoned,  and  who  was 
returning  post  haste  to  Paris,  not  having  said  at  the 
preceding  stage  which  road  he  wished  to  take,  was 
driven  unconsciously  through  Nemours  and,  between 
two  naps,  once  more  beheld  the  country  in  the 
midst  of  which  his  childhood  had  been  passed. 


32  URSULE  MIROUET 

The  doctor  had  then  lost  several  of  his  old  friends. 
The  sectary  of  the  Encyclopedia  had  witnessed  the 
conversion  of  La  Harpe,  he  had  buried  Lebrun- 
Pindare,  and  Marie- Joseph  de  Chenier,  and  Morellet, 
and  Madame  Helvetius.  He  assisted  at  the  semi- 
downfall  of  Voltaire,  attacked  by  Geoffroy,  the  con- 
tinuer  of  Freron.  He  was  then  thinking  of  retiring. 
And  so,  when  his  post  chaise  stopped  at  the  top  of 
the  Grand' Rue  of  Nemours,  he  was  prompted  to 
inquire  for  his  family.  Minoret-Levrault  came 
himself  to  see  the  doctor,  who  recognized  his  eldest 
brother's  son  in  the  postmaster.  This  nephew  pre- 
sented his  wife  as  the  only  daughter  of  father  Lev- 
rault-Cremiere,  who,  twelve  years  ago,  had  left  him 
the  post-house  and  the  finest  inn  in  Nemours. 

"Well,  nephew,"  said  the  doctor,  "have  I  any 
other  heirs?" 

"My  aunt  Minoret,  your  sister,  married  a  Massin- 
Massin." 

"Yes,  the  surveyor  of  Saint-Lange. " 

"She  died  a  widow,  leaving  one  daughter,  who 
has  just  married  a  Cremiere,  a  charming  fellow, 
who  has  no  employment  as  yet." 

"Well!  she  is  my  direct  niece.  Now,  as  my 
sailor  brother  died  a  bachelor,  as  Captain  Minoret 
was  killed  at  Monte-Legino,  and  as  I  am  here,  the 
paternal  line  is  exhausted.  Have  I  any  relations  on 
the  maternal  side  ?  My  mother  was  a  Jean  Massin- 
Levrault" 

"Of  the  Jean  Massin-Levraults,"  replied  Minoret- 
Levrault,  "there  only  remains  one  Jean  Massin,  who 


URSULE   MIROUET  33 

married  Monsieur  Cremiere-Levrault-Dionis,  a  fod- 
der contractor,  who  perished  on  the  scaffold.  His 
wife  died  of  despair  and  ruined,  leaving  a  daughter 
married  to  a  Levrault-Minoret,  a  farmer  at  Monte- 
reau,  who  does  very  well ;  and  their  daughter  has 
just  married  a  Massin-Levrault, — notary's  clerk  at 
Montargis,  where  the  father  is  a  locksmith." 

"So  I  am  not  lacking  in  heirs,"  said  the  doctor 
gaily,  who  desired  to  take  a  stroll  round  Nemours  in 
company  with  his  nephew. 

The  Loing  undulates  through  the  town,  bordered 
by  terraced  gardens  and  tidy  houses  whose  aspect 
gives  rise  to  the  belief  that  prosperity  must  dwell 
there  rather  than  elsewhere.  When  the  doctor 
turned  out  of  the  Grand'Rue  into  the  Ruedes  Bour- 
geois, Minoret-Levrault  pointed  out  the  property  of 
Monsieur  Levrault,  a  rich  ironmonger  in  Paris, 
who,  he  said,  had  just  let  himself  die. 

"There,  uncle,  is  a  pretty  house  for  sale,  it  has 
a  delightful  garden  looking  on  the  river." 

"Let  us  go  in, "said  the  doctor,  spying  at  the 
bottom  of  a  little  paved  court,  a  house  squeezed  be- 
tween the  walls  of  two  neighboring  houses  hidden 
by  massive  trees  and  climbing  plants. 

"It  is  built  over  cellars,"  said  the  doctor,  going 
in  by  a  very  steep  flight  of  steps  decorated  with 
vases  of  white  and  blue  faience  where  geraniums 
were  then  in  bloom. 

Cut  up,  like  most  provincial  houses,  by  a  corridor 
leading  from  the  court  to  the  garden,  there  was  noth- 
ing to  the  right  but  a  drawing-room  lighted  by  four 
3 


34  URSULE  MIROUET 

windows,  two  facing  the  court  and  two  overlooking 
the  garden;  but  Levrault-Levrault  had  sacrificed 
one  of  these  windows  as  an  entrance  to  a  long 
brick  greenhouse  which  reached  from  the  drawing- 
room  to  the  river,  where  it  ended  in  a  horrible 
Chinese  pavilion. 

"Good!  by  roofing  this  greenhouse  and  flooring 
it, "  said  old  Minoret,  "I  could  stow  away  my  library 
and  make  a  fine  study  of  this  extraordinary  piece  of 
architecture!" 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  corridor,  overlooking 
the  garden,  was  a  dining-room,  in  imitation  black 
lacquer  with  green  and  gold  flowers,  and  separated 
from  the  kitchen  by  the  frame  of  the  staircase.  A 
little  office  contrived  behind  this  staircase,  com- 
municated with  the  kitchen,  the  iron-grated  win- 
dows of  which  opened  upon  the  courtyard.  There 
were  two  rooms  on  the  first  floor ;  and  above,  roofed 
attics  which  were  still  inhabitable.  After  a  rapid 
examination  of  this  house  covered  from  top  to 
bottom  with  green  trellis  work,  on  the  side  of  the 
courtyard  as  well  as  the  garden  side,  and  which 
terminated  on  the  river  in  a  terrace  filled  with 
faience  vases,  the  doctor  said : 

"Levrault-Levrault  must  have  spent  a  lot  of  money 
here!" 

"Oh!  sums  as  big  as  himself,"  replied  Minoret- 
LevraulL  "He  loved  flowers,  such  nonsense! 
'What  do  they  bring  in  ?'  says  my  wife.  You  see, 
an  artist  came  from  Paris  to  paint  his  corridor  with 
flowers  in  fresco.  He  put  plate  glass  everywhere. 


URSULE  MIROUET  35 

The  ceilings  were  done  up  with  cornices  that  cost 
six  francs  a  foot  The  dining-room  floor  is  all  in- 
laid, such  follies!  The  house  is  not  worth  a  penny 
the  more." 

"Well,  nephew,  make  this  purchase  for  me,  and 
let  me  know  about  it,  here  is  my  address ;  the  rest 
my  solicitor  will  see  to. — Who  lives  opposite?"  he 
asked,  on  leaving. 

"Some  refugees!"  replied  the  postmaster,  "a 
Chevalier  de  Portenduere. " 

Once  the  house  was  bought,  the  famous  doctor, 
instead  of  going  there,  wrote  to  his  nephew  to  let 
it  The  Folie-Levraultwas  inhabited  by  the  notary 
of  Nemours,  who  then  sold  his  practice  to  Dionis, 
his  head  clerk,  and  who  died  two  years  after,  sad- 
dling the  doctor  with  a  house  to  let  just  when  Na- 
poleon's fate  was  being  decided  in  the  vicinity. 
The  doctor's  heirs,  pretty  well  deceived,  had  taken 
his  desire  to  return  as  a  rich  man's  caprice,  and 
were  frantic  at  supposing  him  to  have  ties  in  Paris 
which  would  keep  him  there  and  rob  them  of  their 
inheritance.  Nevertheless,  Minoret-Levrault's  wife 
seized  this  opportunity  of  writing  to  the  doctor. 
The  old  man  replied  that  as  soon  as  peace  was 
signed,  once  the  roads  were  free  of  soldiers  and  com- 
munication re-established,  he  should  come  to  live  at 
Nemours.  He  paid  a  flying  visit  with  two  of  his 
patients,  a  hospital  architect  and  an  upholsterer, 
who  undertook  repairs,  interior  arrangements  and 
the  transport  of  the  furniture.  Madame  Minoret- 
Levrault  offered,  as  caretaker,  the  cook  of  the 


36  URSULE  MIROUET 

deceased  old  notary,  who  was  accepted.  When  the 
heirs  knew  that  their  uncle  or  great-uncle  Minoret 
was  positively  going  to  live  at  Nemours,  their  fam- 
ilies were  seized,  in  spite  of  the  political  events 
which  at  that  time  weighed  upon  Le  Gatinais  and  La 
Brie,  with  a  devouring  but  almost  legitimate  curi- 
osity. Was  their  uncle  rich  ?  Was  he  economical 
or  extravagant  ?  Would  he  leave  a  handsome  for- 
tune, or  none  at  all?  Had  he  any  life  annuities? 
This  is  what  they  finally  learnt,  but  with  infinite 
difficulty  and  by  means  of  underhand  espionage. 
After  the  death  of  Ursule  Minoret,  his  wife,  from 
1789  to  1813,  the  doctor,  appointed  consulting  phy- 
sician to  the  Emperor  in  1805,  must  have  earned  a 
great  deal  of  money,  but  nobody  knew  his  income; 
he  lived  simply,  with  no  other  expenses  than  those 
of  a  carriage  by  the  year,  and  a  sumptuous  apart- 
ment; he  never  received  company  and  nearly 
always  dined  out  His  housekeeper,  furious  at  not 
accompanying  him  to  Nemours,  told  Zelie  Levrault, 
the  postmaster's  wife,  that  she  knew  the  doctor  to 
have  fourteen  thousand  francs  income  from  the 
Funds.  Now,  after  twenty  years'  practice  in  a  pro- 
fession which  the  titles  of  head  physician  of  a 
hospital,  physician  to  the  Emperor,  and  member  of 
the  Institute  rendered  so  lucrative,  these  fourteen 
thousand  francs  income,  profit  of  successive  invest- 
ments, implied  at  the  most  one  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  francs  savings !  To  have  saved  only  eight 
thousand  francs  a  year,  the  doctor  must  have  had  a 
great  many  vices  or  a  great  many  virtues  to  gratify ; 


URSULE  MIROUET  37 

but  neither  the  housekeeper,  nor  Zelie,  nor  anybody 
could  fathom  the  reason  for  this  moderate  expendi- 
ture; Minoret,  who  was  much  regretted  in  his  neigh- 
borhood, was  one  of  the  most  benevolent  men  in 
Paris,  and,  like  Larrey,  kept  his  charitable  acts  a 
profound  secret  It  was  therefore  with  keen  satis- 
faction that  the  heirs  saw  the  arrival  of  the  rich  up- 
holstery and  the  large  library  of  their  uncle,  already 
an  officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  appointed 
by  the  King  chevalier  of  the  order  of  Saint-Michel, 
perhaps  on  account  of  his  retirement  which  made 
way  for  some  favorite.  But,  when  the  architect, 
the  painters,  and  the  upholsterers  had  arranged  all 
in  the  most  comfortable  manner,  the  doctor  did  not 
come.  Madame  Minoret-Levrault,  who  was  superin- 
tending the  upholsterer  and  the  architect  as  if  it 
were  a  question  of  her  own  fortune,  learnt,  through 
the  indiscretion  of  a  young  man  sent  down  to 
arrange  the  library,  that  the  doctor  took  care  of  an 
orphan  called  Ursule.  This  news  made  wild  havoc 
in  the  town  of  Nemours.  The  old  man  at  last  came 
home  toward  the  middle  of  the  month  of  January, 
1815,  and  secretly  installed  himself  with  a  little  girl 
of  ten  months,  accompanied  by  a  wet-nurse. 

"Ursule  cannot  be  his  daughter,  he  is  seventy-one 
years  old!"  said  the  alarmed  heirs. 

"Whatever  she  may  be,"  said  Madame  Massin, 
"she  will  give  us  plenty  of  worry!" 

The  doctor  gave  a  somewhat  cold  reception  to  his 
great-niece  on  the  maternal  side,  whose  husband  had 
just  bought  the  clerkship  of  the  justice  of  the  peace, 


38  URSULE  MIROUET 

and  who  had  been  the  first  to  venture  to  tell  him  of 
their  hard  situation.  Massin  and  his  wife  were  not 
rich.  Massin's  father,  a  locksmith  at  Montargis, 
obliged  to  compound  with  his  creditors,  at  sixty- 
seven  years  of  age  was  working  like  a  young  man, 
and  would  leave  nothing.  Madame  Massin's  father, 
Levrault-Minoret,  had  just  died  at  Montereau,  from 
the  effects  of  war,  having  seen  his  farm  burnt, 
his  fields  ruined  and  his  cattle  consumed. 

"We  shall  get  nothing  from  your  great-uncle," 
said  Massin  to  his  wife,  who  was  already  pregnant 
with  her  second  child. 

The  doctor  secretly  gave  them  ten  thousand  francs, 
with  which  the  clerk  of  the  justice  of  the  peace,  a 
friend  of  the  notary  and  sheriff  of  Nemours,  started 
usury  and  went  to  work  so  thoroughly  with  the 
peasants  of  the  vicinity,  that  just  now  Goupil 
knew  him  to  be  worth  eighty  thousand  francs  in 
unacknowledged  capital. 

As  for  his  other  niece,  the  doctor,  through  his 
connections  in  Paris,  obtained  the  collectorship  of 
Nemours  for  Cremiere  and  guaranteed  the  security. 
Although  Minoret-Levrault  was  in  need  of  nothing, 
Zelie,  jealous  of  the  uncle's  liberality  to  his  two 
nieces,  introduced  her  son  to  him,  who  was  then  ten 
years  old,  and  whom  she  was  going  to  send  to  a  col- 
lege in  Paris,  where,  she  said,  education  was  very 
expensive.  As  he  was  physician  at  Fontanes,  the 
doctor  obtained  a  half-scholarship  at  the  college  of 
Louis-le-Grand  for  his  great-nephew,  who  was  placed 
in  the  fourth  class. 


URSULE  MIROUET  39 

Cremiere,  Massin  and  Minoret-Levrault,  exceed- 
ingly vulgar  people,  were  mercilessly  summed  up 
by  the  doctor  from  the  first  two  months  during 
which  they  tried  to  encompass,  not  so  much  the 
uncle,  as  the  inheritance.  People  who  are  guided 
by  instinct  have  this  disadvantage  compared  to  peo- 
ple of  ideas,  that  they  are  at  once  found  out;  in- 
stinct's inspirations  are  too  natural,  and  appeal  too 
much  to  the  eye  not  to  be  immediately  perceived ; 
whilst,  to  be  fathomed,  the  conceptions  of  intellect 
demand  an  equal  intelligence  on  both  sides.  After 
having  bought  the  gratitude  of  his  heirs,  and  hav- 
ing in  some  degree  closed  their  mouths,  the  wily 
doctor  alleged  his  occupations,  habits,  and  the  atten- 
tions required  by  the  little  Ursule  as  an  excuse 
to  avoid  receiving  them,  without,  however,  forbid- 
ding them  the  house.  He  liked  to  dine  alone,  he 
went  to  bed  and  rose  late,  he  had  come  to  his 
native  country  in  search  of  rest  and  solitude.  These 
caprices  of  an  old  man  appeared  sufficiently  natural, 
and  his  heirs  contented  themselves  with  calling 
upon  him  every  Sunday  between  one  and  four 
o'clock,  weekly  visits  which  he  tried  to  stop  by 
saying  to  them: 

"Do  not  come  to  see  me  unless  you  want  me." 

The  doctor,  without  refusing  to  grant  consulta- 
tions in  serious  cases,  especially  for  the  poor,  would 
not  become  physician  to  the  little  hospital  at  Ne- 
mours, and  declared  that  he  would  no  longer  prac- 
tise his  profession. 

"1  have  killed  people  enough,"  he  said  laughingly 


40  URSULE  MIROUET 

to  the  Cure  Chaperon,  who,  knowing  him  to  be 
charitable,  was  pleading  for  the  poor. 

"He  is  notoriously  eccentric!" 

This  remark,  said  about  Doctor  Minoret,  was  the 
harmless  revenge  of  offended  vanity,  for  the  doctor 
formed  for  himself  a  society  of  persons  who  de- 
served to  be  classed  opposite  the  heirs.  Now,  those 
of  the  bourgeois  who  thought  themselves  worthy  of 
swelling  the  court  of  a  man  with  a  black  ribbon, 
treasured  up  a  ferment  of  jealousy  against  the  doctor 
and  his  privileged  friends,  which,  unfortunately, 
had  its  results. 

Through  some  odd  freak  explained  by  the  proverb : 
"Extremes  meet,"  the  materialist  doctor  and  the 
Cure  of  Nemours  quickly  became  friends.  The  old 
man  was  very  fond  of  backgammon,  a  favorite  game 
with  churchmen,  and  the  Abbe  Chaperon  and  the 
doctor  were  evenly  matched.  So  the  game  was  the 
first  link  between  them.  Then  Minoret  was  char- 
itable, and  the  Cure  of  Nemours  was  the  Fenelon 
of  Gatinais.  Both  were  broadly  educated;  the  man 
of  God  was  the  only  one  in  all  Nemours  who  could 
understand  atheism.  To  be  able  to  argue,  two  men 
must  in  the  first  place  understand  each  other.  What 
pleasure  is  there  in  addressing  pungent  words  to 
some  one  who  does  not  feel  them  ?  The  doctor  and 
the  priest  both  had  too  much  good  taste,  and  had 
seen  too  much  of  good  society  not  to  practise  its 
precepts;  they  could  in  that  case,  wage  that  mimic 
warfare  which  is  so  necessary  to  all  conversation. 
Each  disliked  the  other's  opinions,  but  they  respected 


URSULE  MIROUET  41 

each  other's  character.  If  such  contrasts  and  such 
sympathies  are  not  the  elements  of  private  life, 
must  one  not  despair  of  society,  which,  especially 
in  France,  requires  some  kind  of  antagonism  ?  It  is 
from  collision  of  character,  not  from  conflict  of  ideas, 
that  antipathies  arise.  The  Abbe  Chaperon  was 
then  the  doctor's  first  friend  in  Nemours.  This 
ecclesiastic,  then  sixty  years  old,  had  been  cure  of 
Nemours  since  the  revival  of  Catholic  worship. 
Out  of  love  for  his  flock,  he  had  refused  the  vicariate 
of  the  diocese.  If  those  who  were  indifferent  to 
religious  matters  were  pleased  with  him,  the  faithful 
loved  him  even  more.  Thus  respected  by  his  flock 
and  valued  by  the  population,  the  cure  did  good  with- 
out inquiring  into  the  religious  opinions  of  unfortu- 
nate people.  His  vicarage  had  hardly  furniture 
sufficient  for  his  needs  and  was  as  cold  and  bare  as 
a  miser's  house.  Avarice  and  charity  betray  them- 
selves in  similar  effects ;  does  not  charity  lay  up  for 
itself  the  treasure  in  Heaven  that  the  miser  lays 
up  on  earth  ?  The  Abbe  Chaperon  disputed  his  ex- 
penditure with  his  servant  with  as  much  severity  as 
Gobseck  did  with  his,  if  however,  this  famous  Jew 
ever  had  a  servant  The  good  priest  often  sold  the 
silver  buckles  from  his  shoes  and  breeches  to  give  the 
value  of  them  to  the  poor  who  caught  him  without 
a  penny.  When  they  saw  him  coming  out  of  his 
church,  with  the  ends  of  his  breeches  tied  into  the 
buttonholes,  the  devotees  of  the  town  then  went  to 
find  the  cure's  buckles  at  the  watchmaker  and 
jeweler's  of  Nemours,  and  scolded  their  pastor  when 


42  URSULE  MIROUET 

they  brought  them  back  to  him.  He  never  bought 
himself  linen  or  clothes,  and  wore  his  garments 
until  they  were  unwearable.  His  linen,  thick  with 
darns,  marked  his  skin  like  a  haircloth.  Madame 
de  Portenduere  or  other  simple  souls  then  agreed 
with  the  housekeeper  to  replace  his  linen  or  old 
clothes  by  new  ones  during  his  sleep,  and  the  cure 
did  not  always  remark  the  change  at  once.  At 
home  he  ate  off  pewter  and  with  knives  and  forks 
of  wrought  iron.  When  he  received  his  officiating 
priests  and  curates  on  days  of  solemnity,  which  is 
a  tax  upon  the  cures  of  the  district,  he  used  to  bor- 
row silver  and  table  linen  from  his  friend  the 
atheist 

"My  silver  is  his  salvation!"  the  doctor  would 
then  say. 

These  good  actions,  which  were  sooner  or  later 
discovered  and  always  accompanied  by  spiritual 
encouragement,  were  accomplished  with  sublime 
naivete.  This  life  was  all  the  more  meritorious, 
in  that  the  Abbe  Chaperon  possessed  erudition  as 
extensive  as  it  was  varied,  and  rare  attainments. 
With  him,  shrewdness  and  grace,  simplicity's  in- 
separable companions,  enhanced  a  delivery  worthy 
of  'a  prelate.  His  manners,  his  character  and  his 
habits  imparted  that  exquisite  savor  to  his  conver- 
sation, which,  with  intelligence,  is  both  witty  and 
sincere.  Disposed  to  humor,  he  never  acted  the 
priest  in  a  drawing-room.  Until  Doctor  Minoret's 
arrival,  the  simple  soul  left  his  light  under  a  bushel 
without  any  regret;  but  maybe  he  was  very 


URSULE  MIROUET  43 

pleased  to  turn  them  to  account.  Though  when  he 
came  to  Nemours  he  was  rich  in  the  possession  of  a 
fairly  fine  library  and  an  income  of  two  thousand 
francs,  in  1829  the  cure  owned  nothing  more  than 
the  revenue  from  his  cure,  almost  entirely  distrib- 
uted every  year.  An  excellent  counselor  in  deli- 
cate affairs  or  in  troubles,  many  a  person,  who 
never  went  to  church  for  consolation  used  to  go  to 
the  presbytery  to  seek  advice.  One  small  anecdote 
will  suffice  to  complete  this  moral  picture.  Some 
of  the  peasants,  rarely,  it  is  true,  and  after  all  dis- 
honest people,  said  they  were  being  sued,  in  order 
to  rouse  the  benevolence  of  the  Abbe  Chaperon. 
They  deceived  their  wives,  who,  seeing  their  home 
threatened  with  dispossession  and  their  cows  seized, 
deceived  the  poor  cure  with  their  innocent  tears, 
so  that  he  could  then  find  them  the  necessary  seven 
or  eight  hundred  francs,  with  which  the  peasant 
would  buy  a  plot  of  ground.  When  religious  per- 
sons, churchwardens,  explained  the  fraud  to  the 
Abbe  Chaperon  whilst  begging  him  to  consult  them 
to  avoid  being  made  the  victim  of  cupidity,  he  said : 

"Perhaps  these  people  would  have  committed 
some  crime  to  get  their  acre  of  earth,  is  it  not  at 
least  doing  good  to  prevent  evil?" 

Readers  may  be  pleased  to  here  find  the  sketch  of 
this  figure,  remarkable  in  that  science  and  litera- 
ture had  passed  through  this  heart  and  vigorous 
mind  while  leaving  them  uncorrupted. 

At  sixty,  the  Abbe  Chaperon  had  entirely  white 
hair,  so  keenly  did  he  feel  the  misfortune  of  others, 


44  URSULE  MIROUET 

so  much  also  had  the  incidents  of  the  Revolution 
told  upon  him.  Twice  he  had  been  imprisoned  for 
twice  refusing  to  take  an  oath,  and  twice,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  had  he  said  his  In  Manus.  He  was 
middle-sized,  neither  fat  nor  thin.  His  face,  deeply 
wrinkled,  hollow  and  colorless,  at  once  attracted  at- 
tention by  the  profound  tranquillity  of  the  lines  and 
the  purity  of  the  contour,  which  appeared  to  be 
bordered  with  light  The  face  of  a  chaste  man 
with  an  indescribable  radiance.  Brown  eyes  with 
glowing  pupils,  animated  this  irregular  face  which 
was  surmounted  by  an  immense  forehead.  His 
glance  exercised  inexplicable  influence  by  a  gentle- 
ness which  did  not  exclude  strength.  The  arches 
over  his  eyes  were  like  two  vaults  shaded  by  great 
grizzly  eyebrows  which  were  not  at  all  alarming. 
As  he  had  lost  many  of  his  teeth,  his  mouth  was 
out  of  shape  and  his  cheeks  fallen  in;  but  these 
ravages  were  not  without  charm,  and  the  friendly 
wrinkles  seemed  to  smile  upon  one.  Without  being 
the  least  gouty,  he  had  such  sensitive  feet  and 
walked  with  so  much  difficulty  that  he  wore  Orleans 
calfskin  shoes  in  all  weathers.  He  considered  the 
fashion  of  wearing  trousers  ill  suited  to  a  priest  and 
always  appeared  clothed  in  coarse  black  woolen 
stockings  knitted  by  his  housekeeper,  and  cloth 
breeches.  He  never  went  out  in  a  cassock,  but  in 
a  brown  frock  coat,  and  he  adhered  to  the  three- 
cornered  hat,  bravely  worn  through  the  worst  times. 
This  noble,  handsome  old  man,  whose  face  was 
always  beautiful  by  the  serenity  of  a  blameless 


URSULE  MIROUET  45 

soul,  was  to  have  so  great  an  influence  over  the 
events  and  the  men  in  this  history  that  it  is  neces- 
sary first  to  trace  the  source  of  his  authority. 

Minoret  took  in  three  newspapers;  one  liberal, 
one  ministerial,  one  ultra,  several  periodicals  and 
some  scientific  journals,  collections  of  which  swelled 
his  library.  The  newspapers,  the  encyclopedist 
and  the  books  were  an  attraction  to  a  former  cap- 
tain of  the  Royal-Swedish  regiment,  named  Mon- 
sieur de  Jordy,  a  Voltairean  gentleman  and  an  old 
bachelor  who  lived  upon  a  pension  of  sixteen  hun- 
dred francs  and  a  life  annuity.  After  having, 
through  the  medium  of  the  cure,  read  the  gazettes 
for  several  days,  Monsieur  de  Jordy  thought  proper 
to  go  and  thank  the  doctor.  From  the  first  visit, 
the  old  captain,  formerly  a  professor  in  the  military 
colleges,  won  the  good  graces  of  the  old  doctor,  who 
hastened  to  return  his  call.  Monsieur  de  Jordy,  a 
dry,  thin  little  man,  always  troubled  with  full 
bloodedness,  although  he  had  a  very  pale  face, 
struck  one  at  first  by  his  fine  forehead  a  la  Charles 
XII.,  above  which  he  kept  his  hair  cut  as  close  as 
that  of  that  soldier-king.  His  blue  eyes,  profoundly 
sad,  that  seemed  to  say :  "Love  has  passed  by  here," 
interested  one  at  first  sight,  and  where  one  might 
catch  glimpses  of  the  memories  which  he  otherwise 
guarded  with  such  profound  secrecy,  that  his  old 
friends  never  surprised  either  any  allusion  to  his 
past  life  or  any  one  of  those  exclamations  wrung 
through  a  similarity  of  calamities.  He  concealed  the 
mournful  mystery  of  his  past  under  a  philosophic 


46  URSULE  MIROUET 

gaiety;  but,  when  he  thought  himself  alone,  his 
movements,  benumbed  by  a  slowness  that  was 
less  senile  than  calculated,  attested  some  painful 
and  uninterrupted  thought;  so  the  Abbe  Chaperon 
had.  nicknamed  him  the  Christian  before  knowing 
him.  Always  dressed  in  blue  cloth,  his  rather  stiff 
carriage  and  his  clothes  betrayed  the  former  habits 
of  military  discipline.  His  gentle,  harmonious 
voice  stirred  the  soul.  His  beautiful  hands,  and 
the  cut  of  his  figure,  which  recalled  that  of  the 
Comte  d'Artois,  whilst  showing  how  charming  he 
must  have  been  in  his  youth,  rendered  the  mystery 
of  his  life  even  more  impenetrable.  One  asked 
one's  self  involuntarily  what  misfortune  could  have 
overtaken  the  beauty,  courage,  grace,  learning  and 
all  the  most  valuable  qualities  of  heart  which  were 
formerly  united  in  his  person.  Monsieur  de  Jordy 
always  winced  at  the  name  of  Robespierre.  He 
took  a  great  deal  of  snuff,  and,  strange  to  say,  he 
left  it  off  on  account  of  the  little  Ursule,  who,  be- 
cause of  this  habit,  showed  repugnance  for  him. 
From  the  time  he  was  allowed  to  see  this  little  one, 
the  captain  riveted  long,  almost  passionate  looks 
upon  her.  So  madly  did  he  love  her  games,  and  so 
much  did  he  interest  himself  in  her,  that  this  affec- 
tion tightened  still  closer  the  links  between  him  and 
the  doctor,  who  never  dared  ask  this  old  bachelor : 
"And  you  too  have  lost  some  children  ?" 
There  are  beings,  good  and  patient  like  him,  who 
pass  through  life  with  a  bitter  thought  in  the  heart 
and  a  smile  both  tender  and  mournful  on  the  lips, 


URSULE  MIROUET  47 

bearing  with  them  the  solution  to  the  riddle  with- 
out allowing  it  to  be  fathomed,  through  pride,  dis- 
dain or  vengeance  perhaps,  having  none  but  God 
for  confidant  and  comforter.  Monsieur  de  Jordy 
saw  no  one  at  Nemours — where,  like  the  doctor,  he 
had  come  to  die  in  peace — but  the  cure,  always  at 
the  disposal  of  his  parishioners,  and  Madame  de 
Portenduere,  who  used  to  go  to  bed  at  nine  o'clock. 
And  so,  tired  out,  he  ended  by  going  to  bed  early, 
in  spite  of  the  thorns  with  which  his  pillow  was 
stuffed.  So  it  was  a  piece  of  good  luck  for  the  doc- 
tor as  well  as  for  the  captain,  to  meet  a  man  who 
had  seen  the  same  society,  and  who  spoke  the  same 
language,  with  whom  to  exchange  ideas,  and  who 
went  to  bed  late.  Once  Monsieur  de  Jordy,  the 
Abbe  Chaperon  and  Minoret  had  spent  the  first 
evening  together,  they  experienced  such  pleasure 
from  it,  that  the  priest  and  the  soldier  returned 
every  evening  at  nine  o'clock,  when,  little  Ursule 
having  gone  to  bed,  the  old  man  found  himself  at 
liberty.  And  all  three  stayed  up  until  twelve  or 
one  o'clock. 


Very  soon  this  trio  became  a  quartette.  Another 
man  to  whom  life  was  known,  and  who  to  the  habit 
of  business  owed  that  forbearance,  that  knowledge, 
that  mass  of  observation,  that  shrewdness,  and  that 
talent  for  conversation  which  the  soldier,  the  doctor 
and  the  cure  owed  to  experience  of  souls,  sick  peo- 
ple and  a  profession — the  justice  of  the  peace  sniffed 
the  pleasures  of  these  evenings  and  sought  the 
doctor's  society.  Before  becoming  justice  of  the 
peace  at  Nemours,  Monsieur  Bongrand  had  been 
solicitor  for  ten  years  at  Melun,  where  he  pleaded 
himself,  according  to  the  custom  of  towns  where 
there  is  no  bar.  Becoming  a  widower  at  forty-five, 
he  still  felt  too  active  to  be  idle ;  so  he  had  applied 
for  the  justiceship  of  the  peace  of  Nemours,  which 
was  vacant  some  months  before  the  doctor's  instal- 
ment. The  Keeper  of  the  Seals  is  always  glad  to 
find  practitioners,  and  especially  people  who  are 
well  off,  to  hold  this  important  magistracy.  Mon- 
sieur Bongrand  lived  modestly  at  Nemours  upon  the 
fifteen  hundred  francs  from  his  post,  and  was  thus 
able  to  devote  his  income  to  his  son,  who  was 
reading  for  the  bar  at  Paris,  while  studying  juris- 
prudence under  the  famous  solicitor  Derville. 
Father  Bongrand  somewhat  resembled  an  old  retired 
head-clerk ;  he  had  a  face  that  was  not  so  much  pale 
4  (49) 


50  URSULE  MIROUET 

as  turned  pale,  upon  which  business,  disappoint- 
ments and  disgust  have  left  their  traces,  wrinkled 
with  thought  and  also  with  the  continual  contraction 
customary  with  people  who  are  obliged  not  to  re- 
peat everything;  but  it  was  often  illuminated  by 
those  smiles  which  are  peculiar  to  those  men  who  al- 
ternately believe  everything  or  nothing,  accustomed 
to  hear  and  see  everything  without  surprise,  to  pierce 
the  mysteries  that  self-interest  unfolds  at  the  bot- 
tom of  all  hearts.  Under  his  hair,  less  white  than 
faded,  waving  back  over  his  head,  he  had  a  shrewd 
forehead  whose  yellow  color  harmonized  with  the 
threads  of  his  scanty  hair.  His  puckered  face  gave 
him  all  the  more  resemblance  to  a  fox  as  his  nose 
was  short  and  pointed.  Out  of  his  wide  mouth, 
like  that  of  great  talkers,  he  spurted  white  sparks 
which  made  his  conversation  so  showery,  that  Gou- 
pil  wickedly  said:  "One  wants  an  umbrella  to 
listen  to  him,"  or  else:  "Judgments  &  la  justice 
de paix  are  raining."  Behind  his  spectacles  his 
eyes  looked  sharp;  but,  if  he  took  them  off,  his 
dulled  glance  seemed  simple.  Although  he  was 
gay,  almost  jovial  even,  he  always  gave  himself 
by  his  bearing,  a  little  too  much  the  look  of  an 
important  man.  He  nearly  always  held  his  hands 
in  his  breeches  pockets,  and  only  removed  them 
to  secure  his  spectacles  with  an  almost  mocking 
movement  which  seemed  to  announce  a  shrewd 
observation  or  some  victorious  argument.  His 
gestures,  loquacity  and  innocent  affectations  be- 
trayed the  former  provincial  solicitor;  but  these 


URSULE  MIROUET  51 

slight  faults  only  existed  on  the  surface;  he  re- 
deemed them  by  an  acquired  good  nature  which  a 
strict  moralist  would  call  the  indulgence  natural  to 
superiority.  If  he  were  a  little  fox-like,  he  was  also 
considered  deeply  cunning,  without  being  dishonest 
His  artfulness  was  the  game  of  perspicacity.  But 
are  not  those  people  called  cunning  who  foresee  a 
result  and  protect  themselves  from  the  traps  that 
are  laid  for  them  ?  The  justice  of  the  peace  loved 
whist,  a  game  that  the  captain  and  the  doctor  knew, 
and  which  the  cure  learnt  in  a  very  short  time. 

This  little  company  became  an  oasis  in  Minoret's 
salon.  The  Nemours  doctor,  who  was  not  wanting 
in  education  or  good  breeding,  and  who  honored 
Minoret  as  one  of  the  celebrities  in  medicine,  had 
free  access;  but  his  work  and  fatigue,  which  obliged 
him  to  retire  early  in  order  to  rise  early,  prevented 
him  from  being  as  regular  as  were  the  doctor's 
three  friends.  The  reunion  of  these  five  superior 
persons,  the  only  ones  in  Nemours  who  had  suffi- 
cient general  information  to  understand  each  other, 
explains  old  Minoret's  feeling  of  repulsion  for  his 
heirs ;  if  he  had  to  leave  them  his  fortune,  he  could 
hardly  admit  them  into  his  society.  Whether  the 
postmaster,  the  clerk  and  the  collector  understood 
these  distinctions,  or  whether  they  were  reassured 
by  their  uncle's  loyalty  and  benefaction,  to  his 
great  satisfaction  they  ceased  visiting  him.  And 
so  the  four  old  whist  and  backgammon-players, 
seven  or  eight  months  after  the  doctor's  installation 
at  Nemours,  formed  a  compact,  exclusive  society, 


52  URSULE  MIROUET 

which  was  for  each  like  an  unexpected,  autumn  fra- 
ternity, the  delights  were  only  the  better  enjoyed. 
In  Ursule,  this  family  of  chosen  spirits  had  a  child 
adopted  by  each  according  to  his  tastes;  the  cure 
thought  about  the  soul,  the  justice  of  the  peace  con- 
stituted himself  the  guardian,  the  soldier  promised 
himself  to  become  the  tutor;  and,  as  for  Minoret, 
he  was  at  once  father,  mother  and  physician. 

After  having  become  acclimatized,  the  old  man 
resumed  his  habits  and  regulated  his  life  as  it  is 
regulated  in  the  depths  of  all  the  provinces.  On 
account  of  Ursule,  he  never  received  anyone  in  the 
morning,  and  he  never  invited  anyone  to  dine;  his 
friends  could  arrive  about  six  in  the  evening  and 
stay  until  midnight.  The  first  comers  used  to  find 
the  papers  on  the  salon  table  and  would  read  them 
whilst  waiting  for  the  others,  or  they  would  some- 
times go  to  meet  the  doctor  if  he  were  out  walking. 
These  quiet  habits  were  not  only  necessary  to  old 
age,  but  with  the  old  gentleman  were  wisely  and 
deeply  calculated  to  prevent  his  happiness  from 
being  disturbed  by  the  anxious  curiosity  of  his 
heirs  or  by  the  tittle-tattle  of  the  small  towns.  He 
would  make  no  concessions  to  that  fickle  goddess, 
public  opinion,  whose  tyranny,  one  of  France's  mis- 
fortunes, was  setting  itself  up  and  making  a  very 
province  of  our  country.  And  so,  from  the  time  the 
child  was  weaned  and  could  walk,  he  sent  away 
the  cook  that  his  niece,  Madame  Minoret-Levrault, 
had  given  him,  through  discovering  that  she  told 
the  postmistress  of  all  that  went  on  in  his  house. 


URSULE  MIROUET  53 

Little  Ursula's  wet-nurse,  the  widow  of  a  poor 
workman  with  no  other  than  his  Christian  name 
and  who  came  from  Bougival,  had  lost  her  last  child 
when  it  was  six  months  old,  just  when  the  doctor, 
touched  by  her  distress  and  knowing  her  to  be  an 
honest  good  creature,  took  her  as  wet-nurse.  Penni- 
less, from  La  Bresse,  where  her  family  lived  in  want, 
Antoinette  Patris,  widow  of  Pierre  surnamed  De 
Bougival,  attached  herself  naturally  to  Ursule  as 
foster  mothers  attach  themselves  to  their  nurslings 
when  they  keep  them.  This  blind  maternal  affec- 
tion increased  with  domestic  devotion.  Anticipat- 
ing the  doctor's  intentions,  La  Bougival  secretly 
learned  to  cook,  became  clean  and  handy  and  fell 
into  the  old  man's  ways.  She  took  particular  care 
of  the  furniture  and  the  rooms,  and,  in  short,  was 
indefatigable.  The  doctor  not  only  wanted  to  keep 
his  private  life  sacred,  but  moreover  he  had  reasons 
for  concealing  the  knowledge  of  his  business  from 
his  heirs.  So,  from  the  second  year  of  his  estab- 
lishment, he  had  no  one  in  the  house  but  La  Bougi- 
val, upon  whose  discretion  he  could  absolutely 
depend,  and  he  disguised  his  real  motives  under  the 
all-powerful  reason  of  economy.  To  the  great  con- 
tent of  his  heirs,  he  became  stingy.  Without 
wheedling  and  by  the  sole  influence  of  her  solici- 
tude and  devotion,  La  Bougival,  just  forty-three 
at  the  time  this  drama  commences,  was  house- 
keeper to  the  doctor  and  his  protegee,  the  hinge 
upon  which  all  in  the  house  turned,  in  short,  the 
trusted  servant.  They  had  called  her  La  Bougival 


54  URSULE  MIROUET 

from  the  recognized  impossibility  of  applying  her 
Christian  name  of  Antoinette  to  her  person,  for 
names  and  figures  obey  the  laws  of  harmony. 

The  doctor's  avarice  was  no  mere  empty  word, 
but  there  was  an  object  in  it.  From  1817,  he  cut 
off  two  newspapers  and  stopped  subscribing  to  his 
periodicals.  His  yearly  expenditure,  that  all  Ne- 
mours could  reckon,  never  exceeded  eighteen  hun- 
dred francs  a  year.  Like  all  old  men,  his  needs  in 
linen,  booting  and  clothes  were  almost  nothing. 
Every  six  months,  he  made  a  journey  to  Paris, 
doubtless  to  receive  and  himself  invest  his  income. 
During  fifteen  years,  he  did  not  say  one  word  that 
related  to  his  affairs.  His  trust  in  Bongrand  came 
very  late;  it  was  only  after  the  Revolution  of  1830, 
that  he  unfolded  his  schemes  to  him.  Such  were  the 
only  things  in  the  doctor's  life  then  known  to  the 
bourgeoisie  and  his  heirs.  As  to  his  political  opinions, 
as  his  house  tax  was  only  one  hundred  francs,  he 
mixed  himself  up  in  nothing,  and  scouted  Royalist 
and  Liberal  subscriptions  alike.  His  known  horror 
for  parsons  and  his  deism  were  so  averse  to  mani- 
festations, that  he  turned  out  of  doors  a  commercial 
traveler  sent  by  his  great-nephew  Desire  Minoret- 
Levrault  to  sell  him  a  Cure  Meslier  and  the  Discours 
by  General  Foy.  Such  mistaken  tolerance  seemed 
unaccountable  to  the  Liberals  of  Nemours. 

The  doctor's  three  collateral  heirs,  Minoret-Lev- 
rault  and  his  wife,  Monsieur  and  Madame  Massin- 
Levrault  junior,  Monsieur  and  Madame  Cremiere- 
Cremiere — whom  we  will  call  simply  Cremiere, 


URSULE  MIROUET  55 

Massin,  and  Minoret,  since  these  distinctions 
between  namesakes  are  only  necessary  in  Gatinais, 
— these  three  families,  too  busy  to  create  a  new 
centre,  visited  one  another  as  they  do  in  all  small 
towns.  The  postmaster  used  to  give  a  big  dinner 
on  his  son's  birthday,  a  ball  at  the  Carnival,  and 
another  on  the  anniversaries  of  his  wedding,  when 
he  invited  all  the  bourgeoisie  of  Nemours.  The  tax- 
gatherer  also  summoned  his  relations  and  friends 
twice  a  year.  The  clerk  of  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
"too  poor"  he  said,  "to  rush  into  such  extrava- 
gances," lived  in  a  very  small  way  in  a  house  in  the 
middle  of  the  Grand 'Rue,  part  of  which,  the  ground 
floor,  was  let  to  his  sister,  directress  of  the  post- 
office,  another  of  the  doctor's  kindnesses.  How- 
ever, during  the  year,  these  three  heirs  or  their 
wives  met  in  the  town,  out  walking,  in  the  market 
in  the  morning,  on  their  doorsteps,  or,  on  Sundays, 
after  mass,  in  the  square,  as  just  now;  so  that 
they  used  to  see  each  other  every  day.  Now,  for 
the  last  three  years  particularly,  the  doctor's  age, 
his  avarice  and  his  fortune  warranted  allusions  or 
direct  remarks  referring  to  the  inheritance,  which 
ended  by  spreading  from  place  to  place  and  making 
the  doctor  and  his  heirs  equally  far-famed.  For 
six  months  past,  not  a  week  went  by  without  the 
friends  or  neighbors  of  the  Minoret  heirs  speaking  to 
them,  with  secret  envy,  "of  the  day  when  the  old 
man's  eyes  being  closed,  his  coffers  would  open." 

"  It's  no  use  Doctor  Minoret  being  a  doctor  and 
settling  with  death,  God  only  is  eternal, "said  one. 


56  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Bah!  he  will  bury  us  all;  he  is  in  better  health 
than  we  are,"  replied  the  heir  hypocritically. 

"Well,  if  it  is  not  you,  your  children  will  always 
inherit,  unless  that  little  LJrsule — " 

"He  will  not  leave  all  to  her." 

Ursule,  according  to  Madame  Massin's  anticipa- 
tions, was  the  bete-noire  of  the  heirs,  their  sword  of 
Damocles,  and  this  remark,  "Bah!  those  that  live 
will  see!"  Madame  Cremiere's  favorite  conclusion, 
was  enough  to  show  that  they  wished  her  more  harm 
than  good. 

The  tax-gatherer  and  the  clerk,  both  poor  com- 
pared to  the  postmaster,  had  often,  by  way  of  con- 
versation, estimated  the  doctor's  inheritance. 
Whilst  walking  along  the  canal  or  on  the  road,  if 
they  saw  their  uncle  coming,  they  would  look  at 
each  other  piteously. 

"No  doubt  he  has  kept  some  elixir  of  long  life  for 
himself,"  one  would  say. 

"He  has  made  a  compact  with  the  devil,"  the 
other  would  reply. 

"He  ought  to  favor  both  of  us,  because  that  fat 
Minoret  does  not  want  anything." 

"Ah!  Minoret  has  a  son  who  will  squander  lots 
of  money!" 

"What  do  you  reckon  the  doctor's  fortune  to  be  ?" 
the  clerk  asked  the  financier. 

"At  the  end  of  twelve  years,  twelve  thousand 
francs  saved  every  year  gives  one  hundred  and  forty- 
four  thousand  francs,  and  the  compound  interest 
produces  at  least  one  hundred  thousand  francs ;  but, 


URSULE  MIROUET  57 

as  he  must  have  made  several  good  speculations 
through  the  advice  of  his  notary  at  Paris,  and  that, 
up  to  1822,  he  must  have  invested  at  eight  and  at 
seven  and  a  half  in  the  State,  the  old  man  now 
turns  over  about  four  hundred  thousand  francs,  be- 
sides his  fourteen  thousand  francs  income  from  the 
five  per  cents,  now  at  one  hundred  and  sixteen.  If 
he  were  to  die  to-morrow  without  favoring  Ursule,  he 
would  then  leave  us  seven  to  eight  hundred  thou- 
sand francs,  besides  his  house  and  furniture." 

"Well  then,  one  hundred  thousand  to  Minoret, 
one  hundred  thousand  to  the  little  one,  and  to  each 
of  us  three  hundred;  that  would  be  just" 

"Ah!  that  would  fit  us  nicely." 

"If  he  did  that,"  cried  Massin,  "1  would  sell  my 
clerkship,  and  I  would  buy  a  fine  estate;  I  should 
try  to  become  judge  at  Fontainebleau,  and  I  should 
be  deputy." 

"As  for  me,  I  should  buy  a  stockbroker's  busi- 
ness," said  the  tax-gatherer. 

"Unfortunately,  this  little  girl  he  has  on  his  arm, 
and  the  cure  have  hemmed  him  in  so  well,  that  we 
can  do  nothing  with  him." 

"After  all,  we  are  always  quite  sure  that  he  will 
leave  nothing  to  the  Church." 

Everyone  can  now  understand  what  a  fright  the 
heirs  were  in  at  seeing  their  uncle  going  to  mass. 
Everyone  is  intelligent  enough  to  imagine  any  in- 
jury to  self-interest  Interest  constitutes  the  peas- 
ant's mind  as  it  does  that  of  the  diplomatist,  and, 
on  this  footing,  the  simplest  outwardly  may  perhaps 


58  URSULE  MIROUET 

be  the  strongest.  And  so  this  terrible  argument: 
"If  little  Ursule  has  the  power  to  thrust  her  pro- 
tector into  the  lap  of  the  Church,  she  would  cer- 
tainly be  able  to  make  him  give  her  the  inherit- 
ance," flashed  in  letters  of  fire  across  the  mind  of 
the  most  obtuse  of  the  heirs.  The  postmaster  had 
forgotten  the  enigma  contained  in  his  son's  letter,  to 
hurry  to  the  market  place;  for,  if  the  doctor  was  in 
the  church  to  read  the  ordinary  of  the  mass,  it  was 
a  question  of  losing  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
francs.  It  must  be  confessed,  the  fears  of  the  heirs 
appealed  to  the  strongest  and  most  legitimate  of  so- 
cial sentiments,  family  interest. 

"Well,  Monsieur  Minoret,"  said  the  Mayor — once 
a  miller  who  had  become  a  Royalist,  a  Levrault-Cre- 
miere, — "when  the  devil  was  old,  the  devil  a  monk 
would  be.  They  say  your  uncle  is  one  of  us." 

"Better  late  than  never,  cousin,"  replied  the  post- 
master, trying  to  conceal  his  vexation. 

"How  he  would  laugh,"  he  said,  "if  we  were 
disappointed!  He  would  be  capable  of  marrying 
his  son  to  that  damned  girl,  whom  may  the  devil 
enfold  with  his  tail!"  cried  Cremiere,  shaking 
his  fists,  and  pointing  to  the  mayor  under  the 
porch. 

"What  is  the  matter  with  father  Cremiere?" 
said  the  butcher  of  Nemours,  the  eldest  son  of  a  Lev- 
rault-Levrault.  "Is  he  not  pleased  to  see  his  uncle 
going  the  way  of  Paradise?" 

"Who  would  ever  have  believed  it?"  said  the 
clerk. 


URSULE  MIROUET  59 

"Ah!  one  must  never  say:  'Fountain,  I  will  not 
drink  of  your  water,'  "  replied  the  notary,  who, 
seeing  the  group  from  afar,  left  his  wife  and  let  her 
go  alone  to  church. 

"Now  see,  Monsieur  Dionis,"  said  Cremiere,  tak- 
ing the  notary  by  the  arm,  "what  would  you  advise 
us  to  do  under  these  circumstances?" 

"I  would  advise  you,"  said  the  notary,  addressing 
the  heirs,  "to  go  to  bed  and  get  up  at  your  usual 
hours,  to  eat  your  soup  before  it  grows  cold,  to  put 
your  feet  in  your  slippers,  your  hats  upon  your 
heads,  in  short,  to  continue  your  manner  of  life  ex- 
actly as  if  nothing  had  happened." 

"You  are  not  comforting,"  said  Massin,  giving 
him  the  look  of  a  crony. 

In  spite  of  his  small  stature  and  embonpoint,  and 
in  spite  of  his  coarse,  squat  face,  Cremiere  Dionis 
was  as  sharp  as  a  bristle.  To  make  money,  he  had 
secretly  entered  into  partnership  with  Massin,  whom 
he  doubtless  told  of  the  straitened  peasants  and  the 
patches  of  ground  to  be  devoured.  These  two  men 
thus  picked  out  their  business,  letting  no  good  thing 
escape  them,  and  sharing  the  profits  on  this  mort- 
gage usury,  which  hinders,  but  does  not  stop  the  in- 
fluence of  the  peasants  over  the  soil.  And  so,  it 
was  not  so  much  for  Minoret  the  postmaster,  or 
Cremiere  the  tax-collector,  as  for  the  sake  of  his 
friend  the  clerk  that  Dionis  took  so  keen  an  interest 
in  the  doctor's  inheritance.  Massin's  share,  sooner 
or  later  was  to  swell  the  capital  with  which  the 
two  partners  operated  in  the  district. 


60  URSULE  MIROUET 

"We  will  try  to  find  out  through  Monsieur  Bon- 
grand  where  this  blow  comes  from,"  replied  the 
notary  in  a  low  voice  whilst  cautioning  Massin  to 
keep  close. 

"But  what  are  you  doing  here,  Minoret?"  sud- 
denly cried  a  little  woman,  bursting  into  the  group 
in  the  middle  of  which  the  postmaster  looked  like  a 
tower,  "you  do  not  know  where  Desire  is  and  there 
you  stay  planted  on  your  legs  gossiping  when  I 
thought  you  were  on  horseback!— Good-morning, 
mesdames  and  messieurs." 

This  thin,  pale,  fair  little  woman,  dressed  in  a 
white  print  gown  with  large  chocolate-colored  flow- 
ers, with  an  embroidered  lace-trimmed  cap,  and  wear- 
ing a  little  green  shawl  over  her  flat  shoulders,  was 
the  postmistress  who  made  the  roughest  postilions, 
servants  and  carters  tremble ;  who  kept  the  cash-box 
and  the  books,  and  managed  the  household  with  a  fin- 
ger and  a  glance,  according  to  the  popular  expression 
of  the  neighbors.  Like  all  true  housewives,  she 
wore  no  jewels.  She  did  not  believe,  so  she  said, 
in  tinsel  and  gewgaws;  she  pinned  her  faith  to  what 
was  solid,  and  in  spite  of  the  fete,  kept  on  her  black 
apron,  in  the  pockets  of  which  jangled  a  bunch  of 
keys.  Her  squeaking  voice  grated  upon  the  drum  of 
the  ear.  Notwithstanding  the  tender  blue  of  her 
eyes,  her  severe  glance  was  in  obvious  harmony 
with  the  thin  lips  of  a  pursed-up  mouth,  with  a 
high,  bulging  and  extremely  imperious  forehead. 
Sharp  as  was  the  glance  of  the  eye,  still  sharper 
were  the  gestures  and  words.  "Zelie,  obliged  to 


URSULE  MIROUET  6l 

have  a  will  for  two,  had  always  had  enough  for 
three,"  Goupil  used  to  say,  and  he  called  atten- 
tion to  the  successive  reigns  of  three  tidy  young 
postilions,  each  of  whom  had  been  set  up  by  Zelie 
after  seven  years'  service.  And  so  the  malicious 
clerk  called  them  Postilion  I.,  Postilion  II.  and 
Postilion  III.  But  the  small  amount  of  influence 
exercised  by  these  young  men  in  the  house,  and 
their  perfect  obedience  proved  that  Zelie  had  been 
purely  and  simply  interested  in  steady,  good  fel- 
lows. 

"Well  then,  Zelie  loves  zeal,"  replied  the  clerk 
to  those  who  made  such  remarks  to  him. 

This  scandal  was  very  improbable.  Ever  since 
the  birth  of  her  son,  whom  she  had  nursed  herself 
without  anyone  being  able  to  tell  how,  the  post- 
mistress had  thought  of  nothing  but  increasing  her 
fortune,  and  applied  herself  unceasingly  to  the  man- 
agement of  her  immense  establishment  To  steal 
a  truss  of  straw  or  two  or  three  bushels  of  oats,  to 
deceive  Zelie  in  the  most  complicated  accounts  was 
an  impossibility  although  she  wrote  like  a  cat  and 
knew  no  more  arithmetic  than  addition  and  subtrac- 
tion. She  never  went  out  except  to  measure  her 
hay,  her  aftermaths  and  her  oats;  then  she  would 
send  her  husband  to  the  harvest  and  her  postilions 
to  the  binding,  telling  them,  within  a  hundred 
pounds,  the  quantity  that  such  and  such  a  meadow 
should  yield.  Although  she  was  the  soul  of  that 
great  fat  body  called  Minoret-Levrault,  and  although 
she  led  him  by  the  end  of  that  absurdly  turned-up 


62  URSULE  MIROUET 

nose,  she  used  to  experience  frights,  which  more  or 
less,  always  agitate  tamers  of  wild  beasts.  And  so 
she  would  constantly  fly  into  rages  before  him,  and 
the  postilions  knew,  by  the  scoldings  Minoret  gave 
them,  when  he  had  been  quarreling  with  his  wife, 
for  the  fury  rebounded  on  them.  La  Minoret  was 
also  as  clever  as  she  was  mercenary.  All  over  the 
town  in  more  than  one  household  this  remark  used 
to  be  made :  "Where  would  Minoret  be  without  his 
wife!" 

"When  you  know  what  has  happened,"  replied 
the  Master  of  Nemours,  "you  yourself  will  be  ex- 
asperated." 

"Well,  what  is  it?" 

"Ursule  has  taken  Doctor  Minoret  to  mass." 

Zelie  Levrault's  pupils  dilated,  she  stood  for  a 
moment,  yellow  with  anger,  said,  "I  must  see  it  to 
believe  it!"  and  dashed  into  the  church.  The  mass 
had  got  as  far  as  the  Elevation  of  the  Host  Be- 
friended by  the  general  meditation,  La  Minoret  was 
then  able  to  look  into  each  row  of  chairs  and 
benches,  whilst  proceeding  along  the  chapels  until 
she  came  to  Ursule's  place,  where  she  saw  the  old 
man,  bareheaded,  beside  her. 

By  recalling  the  faces  of  Barbe-Marbois,  Boissy 
d'Anglas,  Morellet,  Helvetius  and  Frederick  the 
Great,  you  will  at  once  have  an  exact  picture  of  the 
head  of  Doctor  Minoret,  whose  green  old  age  re- 
sembled that  of  these  famous  persons.  These  heads, 
as  if  struck  from  the  same  coin,  for  they  adapt 
themselves  to  medals,  present  a  severe  and  almost 


URSULE  MIROUET  63 

puritanical  profile,  cold  coloring,  mathematical  pro- 
portions, a  certain  narrowness  in  the  almost  concise 
face,  keen  eyes  and  serious  mouths,  something 
aristocratic,  less  in  the  sentiment  than  in  the  habits, 
more  in  the  ideas  than  in  the  character.  All  have 
high  foreheads,  but  with  a  sloping  at  the  top,  which 
betrays  a  materialistic  tendency.  You  will  find  these 
chief  characteristics  of  head  and  likeness  of  face  in 
the  portraits  of  all  the  encyclopedists,  the  orators  of 
the  Gironde,  and  the  men  of  that  time  whose  re- 
ligious beliefs  were  almost  nil,  who  called  them- 
selves deists  and  were  atheists.  The  deist  is  an 
atheist  without  his  obligations.  Old  Minoret  had 
this  sort  of  a  forehead,  but  furrowed  with  wrinkles, 
and  which  acquired  a  kind  of  naivete  from  the  way  in 
which  his  silvery  hair,  drawn  back  like  that  of  a 
woman  at  her  toilette,  curled  in  light  tufts  over  his 
black  coat,  for  he  was  obstinately  dressed,  as  in  his 
youth,  in  black  silk  stockings,  gold  buckled  shoes, 
paduasoy  breeches,  a  white  waistcoat  crossed  by 
the  black  ribbon,  and  a  black  coat  decorated  with 
the  red  rosette.  This  distinguished  head,  whose 
cold  whiteness  was  softened  by  the  yellow  tones  of 
old  age,  was  in  the  full  light  of  a  window.  Just 
when  the  postmistress  arrived,  the  doctor's  blue 
eyes,  with  moistened  lids  and  softened  outlines, 
were  fixed  upon  the  altar ;  a  new  conviction  gave 
them  a  new  expression.  His  spectacles  marked  the 
place  at  which  he  had  left  off  reading  in  his  prayer- 
book.  With  his  arms  crossed  on  his  chest,  this  tall, 
gaunt  old  man,  standing  in  an  attitude  expressive 


64  URSULE  MIROUET 

of  the  omnipotence  of  his  faculties  and  something 
immovable  in  his  faith,  never  ceased  contemplating 
the  altar  with  a  humble  look,  revived  by  hope,  re- 
fusing to  look  at  his  nephew's  wife,  planted  almost 
in  front  of  him  as  if  to  reproach  him  with  this 
return  to  God. 

Seeing  all  eyes  turning  upon  her,  Zelie  hastened 
out,  and  returned  to  the  market-place  less  precipi- 
tately than  she  had  entered  the  church; 'she counted 
on  this  inheritance,  and  the  inheritance  was  becom- 
ing problematical.  She  found  the  clerk,  the  tax- 
collector  and  their  wives  even  more  dismayed  than 
before;  Goupil  had  delighted  in  teasing  them. 

"We  cannot  talk  over  our  affairs  in  the  market- 
place and  before  all  the  town,"  said  the  postmis- 
tress; "come  to  my  house.  You  will  not  be  in  the 
way,  Monsieur  Dionis,"  she  said  to  the  notary. 

In  this  way,  the  probable  disinheriting  of  the 
Massins,  the  Cremieres  and  the  postmaster  was  to 
be  the  talk  of  the  country. 

Just  as  the  heirs  and  the  notary  were  about  to 
cross  the  square  on  their  way  to  the  post-house,  the 
sound  of  a  diligence  arriving  full  tilt  at  the  office, 
which  was  a  few  steps  from  the  church,  at  the  top 
of  the  Grand' Rue,  made  a  tremendous  noise. 

"Bless  my  soul !  I  am  like  you,  Minoret,  I  am  for- 
getting Desire,"  said  Zelie.  "Let  us  go  and  see 
him  get  down ;  he  is  almost  a  barrister,  and  it  is  a 
matter  that  concerns  him." 

The  arrival  of  a  stage  coach  is  always  a  distrac- 
tion; but,  when  it  is  late,  some  incident  is  to  be 


URSULE  MIROUET  65 

expected ;  and  so  the  crowd  moved  in  front  of  the 
Dueler. 

"There  is  Desire!"  was  the  universal  cry. 

Desire,  at  once  the  tyrant  and  boon  companion  of 
Nemours,  always  set  the  town  in  a  flutter  by  his 
visits.  His  presence  roused  up  the  young  people, 
by  whom  he  was  liked,  and  with  whom  he  was 
open-handed;  but  his  amusements  were  so  much 
dreaded,  that  more  than  one  family  rejoiced  to  see 
him  go  off  to  study  and  read  for  the  bar  at  Paris. 
Desire  Minoret — a  thin  young  man,  slender  and 
fair  like  his  mother,  from  whom  he  got  his  blue 
eyes  and  pale  complexion — smiled  out  of  the  win- 
dow at  the  crowd,  and  jumped  out  lightly  to  kiss 
his  mother.  A  slight  sketch  of  this  boy  will  prove 
how  pleased  Zelie  was  at  seeing  him. 

The  student  wore  thin  boots,  white  trousers  of 
some  English  material  with  patent  leather  straps, 
a  handsome  fashionable  tie  even  more  beautifully 
tied,  a  stylish  fancy  waistcoat,  and  in  this  waistcoat 
pocket,  a  flat  watch  with  a  hanging  chain,  and  lastly, 
a  short  f rockcoat  of  blue  cloth  and  a  gray  hat ;  but  the 
gold  buttons  of  the  waistcoat  and  the  ring  worn  out- 
side the  violet-colored  kid  gloves  betrayed  the  par- 
venu. He  carried  a  cane  with  a  chased  gold  knob. 

"You  will  lose  your  watch,"  said  his  mother, 
kissing  him. 

"It  is  done  on  purpose,"  he  replied,  submitting 
to  his  father's  embrace. 

"Well,  cousin,  you  will  soon  be  a  barrister?" 
said  Mass  in. 
5 


66  URSULE  M1ROUET 

"I  shall  take  the  oath  at  the  re-opening,"  he  said, 
answering  the  friendly  greetings  from  the  crowd. 

"Then  we  shall  have  some  fun?"  said  Goupil 
shaking  his  hand. 

"Ah!  there  you  are,  old  monkey,"  replied  Desire. 

"You  still  take  out  a  license  for  argument  after 
your  argument  for  a  license,"  retorted  the  clerk, 
mortified  at  being  treated  so  familiarly-  before  so 
many  people. 

"What!  he  tells  him  to  hold  his  tongue?"  Ma- 
dame Cremiere  asked  her  husband. 

"You  know  what  1  brought,  Cabirolle!"  cried 
Desire  to  the  old  violet-hued,  pimple-faced  guard, 
"have  it  all  taken  to  the  house." 

"The  perspiration  is  streaming  off  your  horses," 
said  the  harsh  Zelie  to  Cabirolle;  "have  you  no 
better  sense  than  to  drive  them  like  that?  You  are 
more  stupid  than  they  are!" 

"But  Monsieur  Desire  wanted  to  arrive  as  quickly 
as  possible,  in  order  to  relieve  your  anxiety — " 

"But,  as  there  was  no  accident,  why  risk  losing 
your  horses?"  she  rejoined. 

The  recognition  of  friends,  the  good-mornings,  the 
outbursts  of  the  young  people  around  Desire,  all  the 
incidents  of  the  arrival  and  the  account  of  the  acci- 
dent which  had  caused  the  delay,  took  so  much 
time  that  the  band  of  heirs,  with  the  addition  of  their 
friends,  arrived  in  the  market-place  just  as  mass 
was  ended.  By  chance,  which  indulges  in  every- 
thing, Desire  saw  Ursule  under  the  church  porch  as 
he  was  passing,  and  he  stopped,  stupefied  by  her 


URSULE  MIROUET  67 

beauty.     The  young  lawyer's  movement  necessarily 
stopped  his  parents'  progress. 

Obliged,  by  giving  her  arm  to  her  godfather,  to 
hold  her  prayer-book  in  her  right  hand  and  her  um- 
brella in  the  other,  Ursule  was  then  displaying  the 
innate  grace  that  graceful  women  show  in  perform- 
ing all  the  fastidious  details  belonging  to  a  woman's 
charming  calling.  If  thought  is  revealed  as  a  whole, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  this  demeanor  expressed  a 
divine  simplicity.  Ursule  was  dressed  in  a  white 
muslin  gown  cut  like  a  dressing-gown  trimmed  at  va- 
rious points  with  blue  bows.  The  tippet,  edged  with 
ribbon  to  match  run  through  a  wide  hem,  and  tied 
with  bows  similar  to  those  on  the  dress,  gave 
glimpses  of  the  beauty  of  her  bust  The  charming 
tone  of  her  ivory-white  neck  was  set  off  by  all 
the  blue,  the  disguise  of  all  blondes.  Her  blue 
sash  with  long  floating  ends  outlined  a  flat,  appar- 
ently flexible  waist,  one  of  the  most  alluring  charms 
of  the  sex.  She  wore  a  rice-straw  hat,  simply 
trimmed  with  ribbons  to  match  her  dress,  with  the 
strings  tied  under  the  chin,  which,  whilst  it  relieved 
the  extreme  whiteness  of  the  hat,  in  no  way  de- 
stroyed that  of  her  beautiful  fair  complexion.  On 
each  side  of  Ursule's  face,  which  seemed  to  lend 
itself  naturally  to  a  headdress  a  la  Berthe,  were  big 
smooth  plaits  of  fine  fair  hair  with  little  tresses  which 
caught  the  eye  with  their  thousand  glistening  projec- 
tions. Her  gray  eyes,  at  once  gentle  and  proud, 
harmonized  with  a  well-shaped  forehead.  A  pink 
color  diffusing  her  cheeks  like  a  cloud,  animated  her 


68  URSULE  MIROUET 

regular  but  not  insipid  face,  for  Nature,  by  some 
rare  privilege,  had  given  her  both  purity  of  line  and 
of  physiognomy.  The  dignity  of  her  life  betrayed 
itself  in  the  admirable  harmony  between  her  fea- 
tures, movements  and  the  general  expression  of  her 
person,  which  might  have  served  as  a  model  for 
Trust  or  Modesty.  Her  health,  although  brilliant, 
did  not  break  out  coarsely,  so  she  had  a  distin- 
guished appearance.  Under  her  light-colored 
gloves,  one  might  guess  at  her  pretty  hands.  Her 
slender,  arched  feet  were  delicately  shod  in  bronze 
kid  shoes  fringed  with  brown  silk.  Her  blue  sash, 
distended  by  a  little  flat  watch  and  her  blue  purse 
with  golden  tassels,  attracted  the  eyes  of  all  the 
women. 

"He  has  given  her  a  new  watch!"  said  Madame 
Cremiere,  squeezing  her  husband's  arm. 

"What!  is  that  Ursule?"  cried  Desire,  "I  never 
should  have  recognized  her." 

"Well,  my  dear  uncle,  you  are  causing  a  sensa- 
tion," said  the  postmaster,  pointing  to  the  whole 
town  drawn  up  in  two  lines  on  each  side  of  the 
old  man's  path,  "everyone  wants  to  see  you." 

"Is  it  the  Abbe  Chaperon  or  Mademoiselle  Ursule 
who  has  converted  you,  uncle?"  said  Massin  with 
Jesuitical  obsequiousness,  bowing  to  the  doctor  and 
his  protegee. 

"It  is  Ursule,"  said  the  old  man  dryly,  walking 
all  the  time  like  a  man  beset. 

Even  if  the  evening  before,  whilst  finishing  his 
whist  with  Ursule,  the  doctor  of  Nemours  and 


URSULE  MIROUET  69 

Bongrand,  at  these  words  said  by  the  old  man,  "To- 
morrow I  shall  go  to  mass !"  the  justice  of  the  peace 
had  not  replied,  "Your  heirs  will  sleep  no  more!" 
it  would  have  needed  only  a  single  glance  from  the 
shrewd,  clear-sighted  doctor  to  penetrate  the  frame 
of  mind  of  his  heirs  at  sight  of  their  faces.  Zelie's 
irruption  into  the  church,  her  look  that  the  doctor 
caught,  this  assembly  of  all  the  parties  concerned,  in 
the  market-place,  and  the  expression  of  their  eyes 
as  they  saw  Ursule,  all  betrayed  renewed  hatred 
and  sordid  fears. 

"This  is  your  doing,  mademoiselle!"  resumed 
Madame  Cremiere,  also  interposing  with  a  humble 
curtsey.  "A  miracle  costs  you  nothing." 

"He  belongs  to  God,  madame,"  replied  Ursule. 

"Oh!  God !"  cried  Minoret-Levrault,  "myfather- 
in-law  used  to  say  that  He  served  as  a  cloak  for 
many  a  horse." 

"He  had  the  opinions  of  a  horse-dealer,"  said  the 
doctor  severely. 

"Well,"  said  Minoret  to  his  wife  and  son,  "are 
you  not  going  to  greet  my  uncle?" 

"I  could  not  control  myself  before  this  demure- 
looking  chit,"  cried  Zelie,  carrying  off  her  son. 

"You  would  do  well,  uncle,"  said  Madame  Massin, 
"not  to  go  to  church  without  a  little  black  velvet 
cap,  the  church  is  very  damp." 

"Bah!  my  niece,"  said  the  old  man,  looking  at 
those  who  accompanied  him,  "the  sooner  I  am  laid 
to  rest,  the  sooner  you  will  dance." 

He  continued  walking  the  whole  time,  dragging 


70  URSULE  MIROUET 

Ursule  with  him,  and  seemed  so  hurried,  that  they 
were  left  alone. 

"Why  did  you  speak  so  harshly  to  them  ?  It  is 
not  right, "  said  Ursule,  shaking  his  arm  rebelliously. 

"Before,  as  after  my  entry  into  religion,  my  hatred 
will  be  the  same  for  all  hypocrites.  I  have  done 
good  to  them  all,  I  have  asked  no  gratitude  from 
them ;  but  not  one  of  those  people  sent  you  a  flower 
on  your  birthday,  the  only  day  I  celebrate." 

At  a  fairly  long  distance  from  the  doctor  and 
Ursule,  Madame  de  Portenduere  was  dragging  her- 
self along  apparently  overcome  with  grief.  She 
belonged  to  that  class  of  old  women  whose  dress 
revives  the  spirit  of  the  last  century,  who  wear 
violet  gowns,  with  flat  sleeves  and  cut  in  a  fashion 
which  is  only  seen  in  the  portraits  of  Madame  Le- 
brun ;  they  wear  black  lace  mantles,  and  old-fash- 
ioned hats  in  keeping  with  their  slow,  solemn  step ; 
one  would  think  they  were  always  walking  with 
their  hoops,  and  that  they  still  felt  them  round 
them,  like  those  who  have  had  an  arm  cut  off  some- 
times move  the  hand  that  is  lost;  their  long,  pale 
faces,  with  great  bruised  eyes,  and  withered  fore- 
heads are  not  without  a  certain  melancholy  grace,  in 
spite  of  the  towering  hair  and  flattened  curls;  they 
wrap  their  faces  up  in  old  laces  that  refuse  any 
longer  to  wave  about  the  cheeks ;  but  all  these  ruins 
are  overruled  by  an  incredible  dignity  of  manner  and 
looks.  This  old  lady's  wrinkled,  red  eyes  told  plainly 
enough  that  she  had  been  crying  during  mass.  She 
was  going  along  like  a  person  in  trouble,  and  seemed 


URSULE  MIROUET  71 

to  be  expecting  someone,  for  she  turned  round. 
Now,  Madame  de  Portenduere  turning  round  was  as 
serious  an  act  as  that  of  Doctor  Minoret's  conversion. 

"Whom  does  Madame  de  Portenduere  want?" 
said  Madame  Massin,  rejoining  the  heirs,  who  were 
petrified  by  the  old  man's  answers. 

"She  is  looking  for  the  cure,"  said  the  notary 
Dionis,  who  struck  his  forehead  like  a  man  over- 
come by  some  recollection  or  a  forgotten  idea,  "I 
have  something  to  tell  you  all,  and  the  inheritance 
is  saved !  Let  us  go  and  breakfast  happily  with  Ma- 
dame Minoret" 

It  may  be  imagined  with  what  eagerness  the  heirs 
followed  the  notary  to  the  post-house.  Goupil  ac- 
companied his  friend,  arm-in-arm,  whispering  to 
him  with  a  hideous  smile: 

"There  are  some  gay  women." 

"What  do  I  care?"  replied  the  son  of  the  family, 
shrugging  his  shoulders,  "I  am  madly  in  love  with 
Florine,  the  most  heavenly  creature  in  the  world." 

"And  who  is  Florine?"  asked  Goupil.  "I  care 
for  you  too  much  to  let  you  be  bamboozled  by  any 
creatures." 

"Florine  is  the  famous  Nathan's  passion,  and  my 
folly  is  useless,  for  she  has  positively  refused  to 
marry  me." 

"Women  who  are  foolish  with  their  bodies  are 
often  wise  in  their  heads,"  said  GoupiC 

"If  only  you  could  see  her,  you  would  not  make 
use  of  such  expressions,"  said  Desire  languishingly. 

"If  I  saw  you  blighting  your  future  for  what  can 


72  URSULE  MIROUET 

be  but  a  whim,"  rejoined  Goupil  with  an  earnest- 
ness that  would  have  deceived  even  Bongrand,  "1 
would  go  and  crush  that  doll  as  Varney  crushes  Amy 
Robsart  in  Kenilworth\  Your  wife  ought  to  be  a 
D'Aiglemont,  or  a  Mademoiselle  du  Rouvre,  and  help 
you  to  become  a  deputy.  My  future  is  mortgaged 
to  yours  and  I  shall  not  let  you  commit  blunders." 

"I  am  rich  enough  to  be  content  with  happiness," 
replied  Desire. 

"Well,  what  are  you  plotting  there  ?"  said  Zelie 
to  Goupil,  hailing  the  two  friends  who  were  standing 
in  the  middle  of  her  enormous  yard. 

The  doctor  disappeared  into  the  Rue  des  Bour- 
geois, and  reached,  as  nimbly  as  any  young  man, 
the  house  where,  during  the  week,  the  strange 
event  had  come  to  pass  which  was  then  disturbing 
the  whole  town  of  Nemours,  and  which  needs  some 
explanation  to  elucidate  this  story  and  the  notary's 
communication  to  the  heirs. 


The  doctor's  father-in-law,  the  famous  harpsi- 
chord player  and  instrument  maker,  Valentine 
Mirouet,  one  of  our  most  celebrated  organists,  died 
in  1785,  leaving  a  natural  son,  the  child  of  his  old 
age,  acknowledged  and  bearing  his  name,  but  an 
exceedingly  worthless  fellow.  Upon  his  deathbed, 
he  was  denied  the  consolation  of  seeing  this  spoilt 
child.  Joseph  Mirouet,  singer  and  composer,  after 
having  come  out  at  the  Italiens  under  an  assumed 
name,  had  eloped  to  Germany  with  a  young  girl. 
The  old  manufacturer  commended  this  really  talented 
boy  to  his  son-in-law,  reminding  him  that  he  had 
refused  to  marry  the  mother  so  as  not  to  wrong  Ma- 
dame Minoret  The  doctor  promised  that  he  would 
give  half  the  inheritance  of  the  manufacturer,  whose 
business  had  been  bought  by  Erard,  to  this  wretched 
man.  He  made  diplomatic  inquiries  about  his  nat- 
ural brother-in-law,  Joseph  Mirouet;  but  Grimm 
told  him  one  night  that  after  having  enlisted  in 
a  Prussian  regiment  the  artist  had  deserted,  taking 
a  false  name,  and  had  baffled  all  pursuit  For 
fifteen  years  Joseph  Mirouet,  gifted  by  nature  with 
a  seductive  voice,  a  desirable  figure,  a  handsome 
face,  besides  being  a  composer  full  of  taste  and 
spirit,  led  that  bohemian  life  which  has  been  so 
well  described  by  the  Berlinese  Hoffmann.  And  so, 
when  about  forty  years  old,  he  was  the  victim  of 
(73) 


74  URSULE  MIROUET 

such  terrible  poverty,  that  in  1806,  he  snatched  at 
the  chance  of  becoming  a  Frenchman  once  more. 
He  then  settled  at  Hamburg,  where  he  married  the 
daughter  of  a  worthy  bourgeois,  mad  about  music, 
who  fell  in  love  with  the  artist,  whose  success  was 
always  in  perspective  and  to  which  she  wished  to 
devote  herself.  But,  after  fifteen  years  of  destitu- 
tion, Joseph  Mirouet  could  not  withstand  the  in- 
toxication of  wealth;  his  natural  extravagance 
reappeared;  and,  though  he  made  his  wife  happy, 
he  spent  her  fortune  in  a  very  few  years.  Poverty 
returned.  The  household  must  have  led  the  most 
horrible  existence  for  Joseph  Mirouet  to  have  come 
to  engaging  himself  as  a  musician  in  a  French  regi- 
ment In  1813,  by  the  merest  chance,  the  surgeon- 
major  of  this  regiment,  struck  by  the  name  of 
Mirouet,  wrote  to  Doctor  Minoret,  to  whom  he  owed 
obligations.  The  answer  was  not  long  in  coming. 
In  1814,  before  the  capitulation  of  Paris,  Joseph 
Mirouet  had  a  refuge  in  Paris,  where  his  wife  died  in 
giving  birth  to  a  little  girl  whom  the  doctor  wished 
to  call  Ursule,  after  his  wife.  The  band  captain 
did  not  survive  the  mother,  exhausted  as  she  too 
had  been  by  fatigue  and  misery.  When  dying,  the 
unfortunate  musician  left  his  daughter  to  the  doctor, 
who  stood  as  her  godfather,  in  spite  of  his  repug- 
nance for  what  he  called  the  mummeries  of  the 
church. 

After  having  seen  all  his  children  perish  succes- 
sively through  miscarriages,  in  painful  confinements 
or  during  their  first  year,  the  doctor  had  awaited  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  75 

result  of  the  last  experience.  When  a  sickly,  ner- 
vous, delicate  woman  begins  with  a  miscarriage,  it 
is  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  her  behaving  during 
pregnancy  and  in  her  confinements  as  Ursule  Mino- 
ret  did,  in  spite  of  her  husband's  care,  attentions 
and  science.  The  poor  man  often  reproached  him- 
self for  their  mutual  persistence  in  wishing  for  chil- 
dren. The  last  one,  conceived  after  an  interval  of 
two  years,  died  during  the  year  1792,  the  victim  of 
the  mother's  nervous  condition,  if  those  physiolo- 
gists are  to  be  believed  who  think  that,  in  the  unac- 
countable phenomena  of  generation,  the  child  takes 
after  the  father  in  blood,  and  after  the  mother  in  its 
nervous  system.  Forced  to  renounce  the  enjoy- 
ment of  his  strongest  feeling,  the  doctor's  benevo- 
lence was  doubtless  in  revenge  of  his  disappointed 
paternity.  During  his  conjugal  life,  so  cruelly  dis- 
turbed, the  doctor  had,  above  all,  longed  for  a  little 
fair-haired  girl,  one  of  those  flowers  which  gladden 
a  whole  house ;  so  he  joyfully  accepted  the  legacy 
left  him  by  Joseph  Mirouet,  and  over  the  orphan 
revived  the  expectations  of  his  vanished  dreams. 
For  two  years,  he  superintended,  as  Cato  once  did 
for  Pompey,the  minutest  details  of  Ursule's  life;  he 
would  not  let  the  wet-nurse  suckle  her,  dress  her,  or 
put  her  to  bed  without  him.  His  experience  and 
his  science  were  all  at  this  child's  disposal.  After 
having  felt  all  the  sorrows,  the  alternations  of  fear 
and  hope,  the  labors  and  joys  of  a  mother,  he  had 
the  happiness  of  seeing  this  daughter  of  the  blonde 
German  woman  and  the  French  artist  develop  a 


76  URSULE  MIROUET 

vigorous  life,  and  a  profound  sensitiveness.  The 
happy  old  man  followed  with  a  maternal  solicitude 
the  growth  of  this  fair  hair,  first  down,  then  silk, 
then  light  and  fine  hair,  so  endearing  to  the  fingers 
that  stroke  it.  He  often  kissed  the  naked  little 
feet,  the  toes  of  which,  covered  with  film,  show- 
ing the  blood  beneath,  were  like  rose  buds.  He 
was  mad  about  this  little  girl.  When  she  tried 
to  speak,  or  when  she  fixed  her  beautiful  soft  blue 
eyes  on  all  objects,  with  that  reflective  look  which 
seems  to  be  the  dawning  of  thought  and  which 
she  ended  in  a  laugh,  he  would  remain  beside 
her  for  hours  together,  seeking,  with  Jordy,  the 
reasons,  which  so  many  other  people  call  caprices, 
hidden  under  the  slightest  phenomena  of  this  deli- 
cious phase  of  life  when  the  child  is  at  once  blos- 
som and  fruit,  a  confused  intelligence,  a  perpetual 
movement,  and  a  passionate  longing.  Ursule's 
beauty  and  gentleness  endeared  her  so  much  to  the 
doctor,  that  he  would  have  liked  to  change  all 
the  laws  of  Nature  for  her ;  he  sometimes  told  old 
Jordy  that  his  teeth  ached  when  Ursule  was  cutting 
hers.  When  old  men  love  children,  they  place  no 
bounds  upon  their  passion,  but  adore  them.  For 
the  sake  of  these  little  beings,  they  suppress  their 
hobbies,  and  for  them  call  to  mind  their  own  past 
Their  experience,  indulgence  and  patience,  all  the 
acquisitions  of  life,  so  painfully  hoarded  a  treasure, 
they  give  up  to  the  young  life  through  which  they 
grow  young  again,  and  so  supply  the  place  of 
maternity  by  intelligence.  Their  ever-watchful 


URSULE  MIROUET  77 

wisdom  is  as  good  as  the  mother's  intuition;  they 
recollect  the  niceties  which  with  her  are  divination, 
and  they  show  them  in  the  exercise  of  a  compassion 
whose  strength  doubtless  develops  in  proportion  to 
this  great  tenderness.  The  slowness  of  their  move- 
ments supplies  the  place  of  the  maternal  gentleness. 
In  short,  with  them  as  with  children,  life  is  reduced 
to  simplicity;  and  if  sentiment  makes  a  slave  of  the 
mother,  the  detachment  of  all  passion  and  the  ab- 
sence of  all  self-interest  permits  an  old  man  to  give 
himself  up  entirely.  It  is  also  no  uncommon  thing 
to  see  children  on  good  terms  with  old  people.  The 
old  soldier,  the  old  cure  and  the  old  doctor,  happy 
in  Ursule's  caresses  and  coquetries,  never  tired  of 
answering  her  or  playing  with  her.  Far  from  fret- 
ting them,  this  child's  petulance  delighted  them, 
and  they  gratified  all  her  wishes  whilst  making 
everything  a  subject  for  instruction.  And  so  this 
little  girl  grew  surrounded  by  old  people  who  smiled 
upon  her  and  were  like  so  many  mothers  around 
her,  equally  attentive  and  prudent  Thanks  to  this 
learned  education,  Ursule's  mind  developed  in  the 
sphere  most  congenial  to  it  This  rare  plant  lit 
upon  its  particular  soil,  inhaled  the  elements  of  its 
true  life  and  assimilated  the  floods  of  light  from  its 
sun. 

"In  what  religion  will  you  bring  up  this  little 
one?"  asked  the  Abbe  Chaperon  of  Minoret  when 
Ursule  was  six  years  old. 

"In  yours,"  replied  the  physician. 

An  atheist  like  Monsieur  de  Wolmar  in  La  Nouvelle 


78  URSULE  MIROUET 

Hkloise,  he  did  not  consider  he  had  the  right  to  de- 
prive Ursule  of  the  benefits  offered  by  the  Catholic 
religion.  The  doctor,  seated  on  a  bench  below  the 
window  of  the  Chinese  study,  then  felt  the  cure 
press  his  hand. 

"Yes,  cure,  every  time  that  she  speaks  to  me  of 
God,  I  shall  send  her  to  her  friend  Sapron,"he  said, 
imitating  Ursule's  childish  way  of  speaking.  "I 
want  to  see  if  religious  feeling  is  innate.  And  so 
I  have  done  nothing  for  or  against  the  tendencies  of 
this  young  mind;  but  I  have  already  appointed  you 
in  my  heart  as  her  spiritual  father." 

"God  will  count  this  to  you,  1  hope,"  replied  the 
Abbe  Chaperon,  gently  striking  his  hands  together 
and  lifting  them  towards  the  sky  as  if  in  brief  men- 
tal prayer. 

And  so,  from  the  age  of  six,  the  little  orphan  fell 
under  the  cure's  religious  influence,  as  she  had 
already  fallen  under  that  of  her  old  friend  Jordy. 

The  captain,  formerly  a  professor  in  one  of  the  old 
military  colleges,  and  applying  himself  by  choice 
to  grammar  and  the  differences  between  the 
European  tongues,  had  studied  the  problem  of  a 
universal  language.  This  learned  man,  patient  like 
all  old  masters,  made  it  his  delight  to  teach  Ursule 
to  read  and  write,  whilst  teaching  her  the  French 
language  and  all  that  she  had  to  know  of  arithmetic. 
The  doctor's  vast  library  permitted  the  choice  of 
books  suitable  for  a  child,  and  which  might  amuse 
as  well  as  instruct  it  The  soldier  and  the  cure 
left  this  intelligence  to  thrive  upon  the  ease  and 


URSULE  MIROUET  79 

liberty  that  the  doctor  allowed  the  body.  Ursule 
learnt  whilst  she  was  playing.  Religion  restrained 
reflection.  Given  up  to  the  divine  culture  of  a  dis- 
position led  into  pure  regions  by  these  three  prudent 
instructors,  Ursule  was  more  inclined  to  sentiment 
than  duty,  and  took  the  voice  of  Conscience  rather 
than  the  social  law  as  her  rule  of  conduct  With 
her,  whatever  was  beautiful  in  feelings  or  actions 
had  to  be  spontaneous;  her  judgment  would  confirm 
the  impulse  of  the  heart  She  was  meant  to  do 
good  as  a  pleasure  before  doing  it  as  an  obligation. 
This  distinction  is  the  characteristic  of  the  Christian 
religion.  These  principles,  more  than  any  others 
made  for  mankind,  become  a  woman,  the  genius  and 
conscience  of  the  family,  the  secret  refinement  of 
domestic  life,  in  fact,  almost  a  queen  in  the  bosom 
of  the  household.  All  three  proceeded  in  the  same 
way  with  the  child.  Far  from  shrinking  from  the 
audacity  of  innocence,  they  would  explain  to  Ursule 
the  purpose  of  things  and  all  known  means  whilst 
never  formulating  any  but  the  most  accurate  ideas 
for  her.  When,  in  regard  to  a  plant,  a  flower  or  a 
star  she  would  make  direct  inquiries  about  God,  the 
professor  and  the  doctor  would  tell  her  that  the 
priest  alone  could  answer  her.  None  of  them  ever 
encroached  on  the  others'  territory.  The  godfather 
undertook  all  material  well-being  and  things  of  this 
life;  the  education  concerned  Jordy;  the  morals, 
metaphysics  and  higher  questions  belonged  to  the 
cure.  This  splendid  education  was  not  thwarted  by 
injudicious  servants,  as  so  often  happens  in  the 


80  URSULE  MIROUET 

wealthiest  households.  La  Bougival,  who  had  been 
lectured  on  the  subject,  and  who  was  besides  much 
too  simple  in  mind  and  character  to  interfere,  never 
disturbed  the  work  of  these  noble  men.  Ursule,  who 
was  a  privileged  being,  was  in  this  surrounded  by 
three  good  genii,  and  by  her  beautiful  disposition 
rendered  their  tasks  both  easy  and  light.  This 
virile  tenderness,  this  gravity  tempered  by  smiles, 
this  liberty  without  danger,  and  this  perpetual  care 
of  soul  and  body,  made  her,  at  nine  years  of  age,  an 
accomplished  and  charming  child.  Unhappily,  this 
paternal  trinity  dissolved.  In  the  following  year 
the  old  captain  died,  leaving  his  work  to  be  con- 
tinued by  the  doctor  and  the  cure,  after  having  ac- 
complished the  most  difficult  part  Flowers  ought 
to  grow  of  themselves  in  so  wel  1  prepared  a  soil.  For 
nine  years  the  old  gentleman  had  saved  up  a  thou- 
sand francs  a  year,  in  order  to  leave  ten  thousand 
francs  to  his  little  Ursule  so  that  she  might  keep 
some  souvenir  of  him  all  through  her  life.  In  a 
will,  the  contents  of  which  were  touching,  he  begged 
his  legatee  to  use  the  four  or  five  hundred  francs 
income  returned  by  this  little  capital  entirely  for 
her  dress.  When  the  justice  of  the  peace  affixed 
the  seals  at  his  old  friend's  house,  they  found  in  a 
cabinet  which  he  had  never  allowed  anybody  to 
look  into,  a  great  quantity  of  toys,  many  of  which 
were  broken,  and  which  all  had  used,  toys  of  days 
gone  by,  religiously  preserved,  and  that  the  poor 
captain  requested  Monsieur  Bongrand  himself  should 
burn. 


About  this  time,  Ursule  was  to  take  her  first  com- 
munion. The  Abbe  Chaperon  spent  a  whole  year 
preparing  this  young  girl,  whose  heart  and  intelli- 
gence, both  so  developed,  but  so  discreetly  kept  in 
check  by  each  other,  required  a  particular  spiritual 
nurture.  Such  was  this  initiation  into  the  knowl- 
edge of  things  divine,  that,  from  the  time  the  soul 
takes  its  religious  shape,  Ursule  became  the  pious, 
mystic  young  girl  whose  character  always  rose 
above  events,  and  whose  heart  dominated  all  ad- 
versity. It  was  then  that  a  struggle  secretly  began 
between  incredulous  old  age  and  believing  childhood, 
for  a  long  time  unknown  to  her  who  provoked  it, 
the  issue  of  which  was  occupying  the  whole  town, 
and  was  to  have  so  great  an  influence  over  Ursule's 
future  by  exciting  the  doctor's  collateral  heirs 
against  her. 

During  the  first  six  months  of  the  year  1824, 
Ursule  spent  nearly  all  her  mornings  at  the  presby- 
tery. The  old  doctor  guessed  the  cure's  intentions. 
The  priest  wanted  to  make  Ursule  an  invincible 
argument  The  unbeliever,  loved  by  his  godchild 
as  if  she  had  been  his  own  daughter,  would  believe 
in  this  ingenuousness,  would  be  won  by  the  moving 
results  of  religion  in  the  soul  of  a  child  whose  love 
resembled  those  trees  in  Indian  climates  that  are 
always  laden  with  flowers  and  fruit,  always  green 

6  (81) 


82  URSULE  MIROUET 

and  always  perfumed.  A  beautiful  life  is  always 
more  forcible  than  the  most  vigorous  reasoning. 
One  cannot  resist  the  charms  of  certain  pictures. 
And  so  the  doctor's  eyes  insensibly  filled  with  tears 
when  he  saw  the  daughter  of  his  heart  going  to 
church,  dressed  in  white  cre"pe,  shod  in  white  satin 
shoes,  adorned  with  white  ribbons,  her  head  encir- 
cled by  a  royal  fillet  fastened  at  the  side  with  a  big 
bow,  the  thousand  curls  streaming  over  her  beauti- 
ful white  shoulders,  the  bodice  edged  with  a  ruche 
trimmed  with  narrow  ribbon,  her  eyes  starry  with  a 
first  hope,  flying  high  and  happy  to  a  first  union, 
loving  her  godfather  more  since  she  had  soared  up 
to  God.  When  he  saw  the  thought  of  eternity  feed- 
ing this  soul  which  had  been  till  lately  in  the  limbo 
of  childhood,  as  after  the  night  the  sun  gives  life 
to  the  earth,  still  without  knowing  why,  he  felt 
angry  at  remaining  alone  at  home.  Seated  on  his 
flight  of  steps,  he  kept  his  eyes  a  long  time  fixed 
on  their  own  gate  through  the  bars  of  which  his 
ward  had  vanished,  saying:  "Godfather,  why  do 
you  not  come  ?  How  can  I  be  happy  without  you  ?" 
Although  shaken  to  its  very  roots,  the  encyclo- 
pedist's pride  would  not  yet  give  way.  Still  he 
walked  out  so  that  he  could  see  the  procession  of 
communicants,  and  distinguished  his  little  Ursule 
shining  with  exaltation  under  her  veil.  She  gave 
him  an  inspired  look  which  moved,  in  the  stony 
portion  of  his  heart,  the  corner  that  was  closed  to 
God.  But  the  deist  held  out,  and  he  said  to  himself : 
"Mummeries!  To  imagine,  that,  if  there  does 


URSULE  MIROUET  83 

exist  a  creator  of  the  world,  the  organizer  of  the 
infinite  pays  any  attention  to  this  foolery!" 

He  laughed  and  continued  his  walk  on  the  heights 
that  overlook  the  road  to  Gatinais,  where  the  full 
pealing  of  the  bells  spread  afar  the  joy  of  families. 

The  sound  of  backgammon  is  unbearable  to  people 
who  do  not  know  this  game,  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult that  exist.  To  avoid  worrying  his  ward,  whose 
delicacy  of  organs  and  nerves  prevented  her  from 
listening  with  impunity  to  these  movements  and  to 
this  apparently  senseless  chatter,  the  cure,  old  Jordy, 
when  he  was  alive,  and  the  doctor,  would  always 
wait  until  their  child  had  gone  to  bed  or  for  a  walk. 
It  often  happened  that  the  game  was  still  going  on 
when  Ursule  came  in ;  she  would  then  resign  her- 
self with  infinite  grace  and  seat  herself  near  the 
window  to  work.  She  disliked  this  game,  the  be- 
ginning of  which  is  in  fact  dull  and  difficult  to 
many  minds,  and  which  is  so  difficult  to  master, 
that,  if  one  does  not  get  into  the  habit  of  playing 
this  game  during  youth,  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
learn  it  later.  Now,  the  night  of  her  first  com- 
munion, when  Ursule  returned  to  her  guardian,  who 
was  alone  that  evening,  she  placed  the  backgammon 
in  front  of  the  old  man. 

"Now  then!  whose  turn  is  it  to  play?"  she  said. 

"Ursule,"  replied  the  doctor,  "is  it  not  a  sin  to 
mock  your  godfather  on  the  day  of  your  first  com- 
munion?" 

"1  am  not  mocking  you  at  all,"  she  said,  sitting 
down,  "I  belong  to  your  pleasures,  you  who  take 


84  URSULE  MIROUET 

care  of  all  mine.  When  Monsieur  Chaperon  was 
pleased,  he  used  to  give  me  a  lesson  in  backgam- 
mon, and  he  has  given  me  so  many  lessons,  that  I 
am  now  quite  able  to  win — You  shall  no  longer  put 
yourself  out  for  me.  So  as  not  to  hinder  your 
pleasures,  I  have  conquered  all  the  difficulties,  and 
I  like  the  noise  of  backgammon." 

Ursule  won.  The  cure  came  and  surprised  the 
players  and  rejoiced  in  her  triumph.  The  next  day, 
Minoret,  who  had  hitherto  refused  to  have  his  ward 
taught  music,  went  to  Paris,  bought  a  piano,  made 
arrangements  at  Fontainebleau  with  a  mistress  and 
resigned  himself  to  the  annoyance  that  his  ward's 
continual  practice  was  bound  to  cause  him.  One 
of  the  prophecies  of  the  late  Jordy  the  phrenologist 
was  realized;  the  little  girl  became  an  excellent 
musician.  The  guardian,  proud  of  his  godchild, 
then  engaged  an  old  German  called  Schmucke,  a 
learned  professor  of  music,  to  come  from  Paris  once 
a  week,  and  provided  for  the  expenses  of  this  art, 
which  he  had  first  thought  perfectly  useless  in  a 
household.  Unbelievers  do  not  like  music,  a  celestial 
language  developed  by  Catholicism,  which  has  bor- 
rowed the  names  of  the  seven  notes  in  one  of  its 
hymns ;  every  note  is  the  first  syllable  of  the  first 
seven  verses  of  the  hymn  to  St  John.  Although 
vivid,  the  impression  produced  upon  the  old  man 
by  Ursule's  first  communion  was  only  temporary. 
The  calmness  and  content  diffused  throughout  this 
young  mind  by  works  of  charity  and  prayer  were 
also  meaningless  examples  to  him.  Without  any. 


URSULE  MIROUET  85 

cause  for  remorse  or  repentance,  Minoret  enjoyed  a 
perfect  serenity.  In  carrying  out  his  kindnesses 
without  any  hope  of  a  heavenly  harvest,  he  con- 
sidered himself  loftier  than  the  catholic,  whom  he 
always  accused  of  usury  with  God. 

"But,"  the  Abbe  Chaperon  would  say,  "if  all 
men  would  devote  themselves  to  this  trade,  you 
must  confess  that  society  would  be  perfect  There 
would  be  no  more  poor.  To  be  charitable  in  your 
way,  one  must  be  a  great  philosopher;  you  raise 
yourself  to  your  doctrine  by  reasoning,  you  are  a 
social  exception ;  whilst  it  suffices  to  be  a  Christian 
to  be  charitable  according  to  ours.  With  you,  it  is 
an  effort;  with  us,  it  is  natural." 

"That  means,  cure,  that  1  think  and  you  feel, 
that's  all." 

And  yet,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  Ursule,  whose 
naturally  feminine  penetration  and  cleverness  had 
been  trained  by  a  superior  education,  and  whose 
reason,  in  all  its  bloom,  was  enlightened  by  a  relig- 
ious spirit,  of  all  kinds  of  spirits  the  most  delicate, 
ended  by  understanding  that  her  godfather  believed 
neither  in  a  future, nor  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
neither  in  providence  nor  in  God.  Plied  with  ques- 
tions by  the  innocent  creature,  it  was  impossible  for 
the  doctor  to  hide  this  fatal  secret  any  longer.  Ur- 
sule's  artless  consternation  made  him  smile  at  first; 
but,  seeing  her  sometimes  sad,  he  understood  the 
depth  of  affection  that  this  sadness  betokened.  Des- 
potic love  has  a  horror  of  any  kind  of  disagreement 
even  in  ideas  that  are  alien  to  it  Sometimes, 


86  URSULE  MIROUET 

the  doctor  yielded  to  his  adopted  daughter's  softly, 
tenderly  spoken  arguments  as  if  they  were  caresses, 
breathed  by  the  warmest  and  purest  affection.  Be- 
lievers and  unbelievers  speak  two  different  lan- 
guages and  can  never  agree.  The  godchild,  in  plead- 
ing God's  cause,  would  ill-treat  her  godfather  just 
as  a  spoilt  child  sometimes  ill-treats  its  mother. 
The  cure  gently  reproved  Ursule,  and  told  her  that 
God  reserved  the  right  to  humble  these  haughty 
spirits.  The  young  girl  answered  that  David  had 
discomfited  Goliath.  This  religious  difference  and 
the  regrets  of  the  child  who  wanted  to  win  her 
guardian  to  God  were  the  only  sorrows  of  this 
home  life,  so  sweet  and  satisfied,  hidden  away  from 
the  eyes  of  the  inquisitive  little  town.  Ursule  was 
growing  and  developing,  and  becoming  the  modest 
and  religiously  educated  young  girl  that  Desire  had 
admired  coming  out  of  church.  The  culture  of 
flowers  in  the  garden,  music,  her  guardian's  pleas- 
ures and  all  the  little  attentions  that  Ursule  paid 
him — for  she  had  relieved  La  Bougival  by  attend- 
ing to  him — filled  the  hours,  days  and  months  of 
this  quiet  existence.  Nevertheless,  for  a  year  the 
doctor  had  been  anxious  about  some  trouble  with 
Ursule ;  but  the  cause  had  been  so  much  expected, 
that  he  did  not  worry  himself  further  than  to 
watch  over  her  health.  And  yet,  this  sagacious 
observer  and  profound  practitioner  thought  that 
these  troubles  had  had  some  sort  of  echo  in  the 
mind.  He  watched  his  ward  as  a  mother  would, 
but  could  not  see  anyone  around  her  who  was 


URSULE  MIROUET  87 

worthy  of  inspiring  her  with  love,  and  so  his 
anxiety  passed. 

At  this  juncture,  one  month  before  the  day  upon 
which  this  drama  commences,  one  of  those  events 
took  place  in  the  doctor's  intellectual  life  which 
ploughs  up  the  field  of  conviction  to  the  chalk  and 
overturns  it;  but  this  event  requires  a  brief  account 
of  several  incidents  of  his  medical  career,  which 
will  moreover  give  fresh  interest  to  this  story. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  science 
was  as  entirely  divided  about  Mesmer's  appearance, 
as  art  had  been  about  that  of  Gluck.  After  having 
discovered  magnetism,  Mesmer  came  to  France, 
where  from  time  immemorial  inventors  have  flocked 
to  obtain  recognition  of  their  discoveries.  France, 
thanks  to  her  intelligible  language,  is  in  some  sort 
the  trumpet  of  the  world. 

"If  homeopathy  reaches  Paris,  it  is  safe,"  said 
Hahnemann  lately. 

"Go  to  France,"  said  Monsieur  de  Metternich  to 
Gall,  "and,  if  they  jeer  at  your  bumps,  you  will  be 
famous." 

Mesmer  had,  then,  followers  and  antagonists  as 
keen  as  were  the  Piccinists  against  the  Gluckists. 
Learned  France  was  roused  and  a  solemn  discussion 
opened.  Before  pronouncing  any  decision  the  Fac- 
ulty of  Medicine  in  a  body  proscribed  Mesmer's  so- 
called  charlatanism,  his  tub,  his  divining  rod  and 
his  theories.  But,  it  must  be  said,  this  German 
unfortunately  compromised  his  magnificent  discov- 
ery by  preposterous  pecuniary  claims.  Mesmer 


88  URSULE  MIROUET 

failed  through  uncertainty  about  facts,  through 
ignorance  of  the  r&le  played  by  hitherto  unobserved 
imponderables  in  Nature,  through  his  inaptitude  for 
investigating  the  different  sides  of  a  triple-faced 
science.  Magnetism  has  more  applications;  in 
Mesmer's  hands  it  was,  as  regards  its  prospects, 
what  principle  is  to  effect  *  But,  if  the  inventor  was 
lacking  in  genius,  it  is  sad  for  human  reason  and  for 
France  to  have  to  state  that  a  contemporary  science 
of  the  societies,  cultivated  equally  by  Egypt  and 
Chaldea,  by  Greece  and  India,  experienced  in  Paris 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  fate  that 
truth  had  met  with  in  the  person  of  Galileo  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  that  magnetism  was  scouted 
by  the  united  attacks  of  religious  people  and  materi- 
alistic philosophers,  alike  alarmed.  Magnetism, 
Christ's  favorite  science  and  one  of  the  divine  pow- 
ers remitted  to  the  apostles,  seemed  to  have  been  no 
more  foreseen  by  the  Church  than  by  the  disciples 
of  Jean- Jacques,  Voltaire,  Locke  and  Condillac. 
The  Encyclopedia  and  the  clergy  could  not  reconcile 
themselves  to  this  old  human  power  which  seemed 
so  new.  The  miracles  of  the  Convulsionaries, 
hushed  up  by  the  Church  and  the  indifference  of 
scholars,  in  spite  of  the  valuable  pamphlets  of  the 
Councillor  Carre  de  Montgeron,  were  the  first  sum- 
mons to  make  experiments  with  the  human  fluids 
which  give  the  power  to  oppose  interior  forces  suf- 
ficiently to  annul  the  suffering  caused  by  exterior 
agents.  But  it  was  necessary  to  recognize  the 
existence  of  intangible,  invisible  and  imponderable 


URSULE  MIROUET  89 

fluids,  three  negations  which  the  science  of  that  time 
insisted  upon  considering  as  a  definition  of  space. 
In  modern  philosophy,  space  does  not  exist.  Ten 
feet  of  space  and  the  world  would  crumble  to  pieces ! 
According  to  materialists  particularly,  the  world  is 
full,  everything  is  connected,  everything  is  linked 
together  and  everything  is  contrived.  "The  world, " 
said  Diderot,  "as  the  result  of  chance,  is  more  ex- 
plicable than  God.  The  multiplicity  of  causes  and 
the  measureless  number  of  rays  that  chance  implies 
explains  the  creation.  Given  the  Eneid  and  all  the 
characters  necessary  to  its  composition,  and  given 
the  time  and  the  space,  by  means  of  tossing  up  the 
letters,  I  should  arrive  at  the  combination  of  the 
Eneid. "  Those  wretched  men,  who  deified  anything 
rather  than  acknowledge  God,  also  shrank  before  the 
infinite  divisibility  of  matter  that  the  nature  of  im- 
ponderable forces  admits  of.  Locke  and  Condillac 
then  delayed  for  fifty  years  the  immense  progress 
that  the  natural  sciences  now  make  under  the  idea 
of  unity  due  to  the  great  Geoff roy  Saint-Hilaire. 
Several  upright  men,  without  any  system,  con- 
vinced by  facts  conscientiously  considered,  persisted 
in  Mesmer's  doctrine,  which  recognized  in  man  the 
existence  of  a  penetrating  influence,  leading  from 
man  to  man,  worked  by  the  will,  healing  by  the 
abundance  of  fluid,  the  exercise  of  which  consti- 
tuted a  duel  between  two  wills,  between  an  evil  to 
be  cured  and  the  will  to  cure  it.  The  phenomena 
of  somnambulism,  barely  surmised  by  Mesmer, 
were  due  to  Messieurs  de  Puysegur  and  Deleuze; 


90  URSULE  MIROUET 

but  the  Revolution  put  a  stop  to  these  discoveries 
which  gave  success  to  the  cause  of  the  scholars  and 
mockers.  A  few  doctors  were  amongst  the  bel  ievers. 
Until  their  death  these  dissenters  were  persecuted 
by  their  fellow-physicians.  The  respectable  body 
of  Paris  doctors  displayed  all  the  harshness  of 
the  religious  wars  towards  the  Mesmerists,  and 
were  as  cruel  in  their  hatred  for  them  as  it  was  pos- 
sible to  be  in  that  time  of  Voltairean  tolerance. 
The  orthodox  doctors  refused  to  consult  with  those 
doctors  who  favored  the  Mesmeric  heresy.  In  1820, 
these  so-called  arch-heretics  were  still  the  object  of 
this  secret  proscription.  The  miseries  and  storms 
of  the  Revolution  did  not  extinguish  this  scientific 
hatred.  Only  priests,  magistrates  and  doctors  can 
hate  like  that.  The  gown  is  always  terrible.  But 
are  not  ideas  also  much  more  implacable  than 
things?  Doctor  Bouvard,  one  of  Minoret's  friends, 
believed  in  the  new  faith,  and  persisted  until  his 
death  in  the  science  to  which  he  had  sacrificed  his 
peace  in  life,  for  he  was  one  of  the  betes-noires  of  the 
Faculty  of  Paris.  Minoret,  one  of  the  stoutest  up- 
holders of  the  Encyclopedists,  the  most  formidable 
enemy  of  Deslon,  Mesmer's  provost,  and  whose  pen 
carried  enormous  weight  in  this  dispute,  quarreled 
irrevocably  with  his  fellow-physician;  he  went 
even  further,  and  persecuted  him.  His  treatment 
of  Bouvard  was  to  cause  him  the  only  regret  that 
troubled  the  serenity  of  his  declining  age.  Since 
Doctor  Minoret's  retirement  to  Nemours,  the  science 
of  imponderables,  the  only  name  that  tallies  with 


URSULE  MIROUET  9! 

magnetism,  which  is  so  closely  allied  by  the  nature 
of  its  phenomena  to  light  and  electricity,  was  mak- 
ing immense  progress,  in  spite  of  the  ceaseless 
jeers  of  Parisian  science.  Phrenology  and  physiog- 
nomy, twin  sciences  of  Gall  and  Lavater,  of  which 
one  is  to  the  other  what  cause  is  to  effect,  proved  to 
the  eyes  of  more  than  one  physiologist  the  traces  of 
an  imperceptible  fluid,  the  base  of  the  phenomena 
of  the  human  will,  the  source  of  the  passions  and 
habits,  the  forms  of  face  and  those  of  the  skull.  In 
short,  magnetic  facts,  and  somnambulistic  miracles, 
those  of  divination  and  entrancement  which  per- 
mitted penetration  into  the  spiritual  world,  were 
accumulating.  The  strange  and  well-established 
story  of  the  apparitions  of  farmer  Martin,  and  this 
peasant's  interview  with  Louis  XVIII.;  the  knowl- 
edge of  Swedenborg's  relations  with  the  dead,  so 
seriously  established  in  Germany;  Walter  Scott's 
accounts  of  the  effects  of  second  sight ;  the  exercise 
of  the  prodigious  faculties  of  several  fortune-tellers 
who  jumble  up  chiromancy,  cartomancy  and  horo- 
scopy  into  one  science ;  the  feats  of  catalepsy  and 
those  of  the  working  of  the  properties  of  the  dia- 
phragm by  certain  morbid  affections;  these  phe- 
nomena, all  emanating  from  the  same  source  and  at 
least  curious,  were  undermining  many  doubts  and 
leading  the  most  indifferent  to  the  ground  of  experi- 
ment Minoret  knew  nothing  of  this  march  of  intel- 
ligence, so  great  in  the  north  of  Europe,  still  so  feeble 
in  France,  where  those  facts  were  nevertheless  tak- 
ing place,  which  were  styled  marvelous  by  superficial 


Q2  URSULE  MIROUET 

observers,  and  which  fall,  like  stones  to  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  into  the  turmoil  of  Parisian  events. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  year,  the  anti-mesmerist's 
peace  was  disturbed  by  the  following  letter : 

"MY  OLD  FRIEND, 

"Every  friendship,  even  if  lost,  has  its  rights  which  are 
with  difficulty  prescribed.  I  know  that  you  are  alive,  and  1 
retain  less  recollection  of  our  enmity  than  of  our  happy  days 
in  the  wretched  lodging  of  Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre.  Just  as  I 
am  about  to  leave  this  world  1  am  anxious  to  prove  to  you 
that  magnetism  will  constitute  one  of  the  most  important 
sciences,  if,  however,  all  science  is  not  one.  1  can  overwhelm 
your  incredulity  with  positive  proofs.  Perhaps  I  may  be  in- 
debted to  your  curiosity  for  the  pleasure  of  shaking  your 
hand  once  more,  as  we  used  to  do  before  Mesmer. 

"Always  yours, 

"BOUVARD." 

Scung  as  a  lion  is  stung  by  a  gad-fly,  the  anti- 
mesmerist  flew  to  Paris  and  left  his  card  at  old 
Bouvard's  house,  in  Rue  Ferou,  near  Saint-Sulpice. 
Bouvard  left  a  card  at  his  hotel,  writing  on  it:  "To- 
morrow, at  nine  o'clock,  Rue  Saint-Honore,  opposite 
the  Assumption."  Minoret,  grown  young  once 
more,  did  not  sleep.  He  went  to  see  the  old  doctors 
of  his  acquaintance,  and  asked  them  if  the  world  was 
upside  down,  if  there  was  a  College  of  Medicine,  if 
the  four  Faculties  still  survived.  The  doctors  re- 
assured him  by  saying  that  the  old  spirit  of  resist- 
ance still  existed;  only,  instead  of  persecuting,  the 
Academy  of  Medicine  and  the  Academy  of  Science 
grossly  ridiculed  whilst  ranking  the  magnetic  feats 


URSULE  MIROUET  93 

with  the  surprises  of  Comus,  Comte,  and  De  Bosco, 
and  as  jugglery,  conjuring  and  what  is  known 
as  entertaining  physics.  This  talk  in  no  way 
deterred  old  Minoret  from  keeping  the  appoint- 
ment made  by  old  Bouvard.  After  forty-four  years 
of  enmity,  the  two  opponents  met  again  under  a 
gateway  in  the  Rue  Saint-Honore.  Frenchmen  are 
too  continually  distracted  to  hate  each  other  long. 
In  Paris  particularly,  events  enlarge  space  too  much 
and  by  politics,  literature  and  science  make  life 
too  vast  for  men  not  to  be  able  to  find  countries 
to  conquer  where  their  pretensions  may  reign  at 
ease.  Hatred  requires  so  many  forces  ready  armed, 
that  one  has  to  keep  in  touch  with  them  when 
one  tries  to  hate  very  long.  Moreover  the  body 
only  can  have  any  recollection  of  it  After  forty- 
four  years,  Robespierre  and  Danton  would  embrace 
each  other.  And  yet,  neither  of  the  doctors  offered 
his  hand.  Bouvard  was  the  first  to  say  to  Min- 
oret: 

"You  look  wonderfully  well." 

"Yes,  not  bad,  and  you?"  replied  Minoret  once 
the  ice  was  broken. 

"I?    Just  as  you  see. " 

"Has  magnetism  prevented  you  from  dying?" 
asked  Minoret  in  a  pleasant  tone,  but  without  bitter- 
ness. 

"No,  but  it  nearly  prevented  my  living." 

"Then  you  are  not  rich?"  said  Minoret 

"Bah!"  said  Bouvard. 

"Well,  I  am  rich,"  cried  Minoret. 


94  URSULE  MIROUET 

"It  is  not  your  fortune,  but  your  conviction  that 
1  want.  Come  along,"  answered  Bouvard. 

"Oh!  you  obstinate  man!"  cried  Minoret 

The  Mesmerist  dragged  the  unbeliever  into  a 
rather  dark  stairway  and  made  him  go  up  carefully 
to  the  fourth  story. 

Just  then  an  extraordinary  man  was  making  him- 
self known  in  Paris,  gifted  by  faith  with  an  incal- 
culable power,  and  making  use  of  the  magnetic 
powers  in  all  their  applications.  Not  only  did  this 
great  unknown,  who  is  yet  living,  himself  suddenly 
and  radically  cure  the  most  cruel  and  most  inveter- 
ate illnesses  from  a  distance,  like  the  Saviour  of 
mankind  did  formerly;  but  he  would  also  produce 
the  most  curious  instantaneous  phenomena  of  som- 
nambulism by  mastering  the  most  rebellious  wills. 
The  physiognomy  of  this  stranger,  who  is  said  to 
depend  only  upon  God  and  to  communicate  with 
the  angels,  like  Swedenborg,  resembles  a  lion;  a 
concentrated,  irresistible  strength  flashes  from  it 
His  singularly  distorted  features  have  a  terrible  and 
startling  appearance;  his  voice,  which  comes  from 
the  depths  of  his  being,  is  as  if  charged  with  mag- 
netic fluid,  it  penetrates  the  hearer  through  every 
pore.  Disgusted  by  the  public  ingratitude  after 
thousands  of  cures,  he  has  fallen  back  into  impene- 
trable solitude,  into  voluntary  nothingness.  His 
all-powerful  hand,  which  has  restored  dying  daugh- 
ters to  their  mothers,  fathers  to  their  weeping  chil- 
dren, idolizing  mistresses  to  their  frenzied  lovers; 
which  has  cured  sick  people  given  up  by  the  doctors, 


URSULE  MIROUET  95 

which  caused  hymns  to  be  sung  in  synagogues, 
temples  and  churches  by  priests  of  different  creeds 
all  brought  to  the  same  God  by  the  same  miracle; 
which  softened  the  agonies  of  the  dying,  to  whom 
life  was  impossible;  this  sovereign  hand,  the  sun 
of  life  which  dazzled  the  closed  eyes  of  som- 
nambulists, will  not  raise  itself  to  restore  an  heir 
presumptive  to  a  queen.  Wrapt  in  the  memory  of 
his  good  deeds  as  if  in  a  shining  shroud,  he  refuses 
to  see  anybody  and  lives  in  the  skies.  But,  at  the 
dawn  of  his  reign,  almost  astonished  at  his  own 
power,  this  man,  whose  disinterestedness  has 
equaled  his  power,  permitted  a  few  inquisitive 
people  to  be  witnesses  of  his  miracles.  The  fame 
of  this  celebrated  man,  which  was  unbounded  and 
which  might  revive  again  to-morrow,  roused  Doctor 
Bouvard  at  the  brink  of  the  grave.  The  persecuted 
mesmerist  could  at  last  see  the  most  radiant  phe- 
nomena of  this  science,  guarded  in  his  heart  like  a 
treasure.  The  misfortunes  of  this  old  man  had 
touched  the  great  stranger,  who  allowed  him  sev- 
eral privileges.  And  so  Bouvard,  going  up  the 
stairs,  suffered  his  old  antagonist's  jests  with 
malicious  joy.  His  only  answer  was,  "You  will 
see!  You  will  see!"  and  those  little  tosses  of  the 
head  indulged  in  by  people  who  are  sure  of  their 
facts. 

The  two  doctors  entered  a  more  than  modest 
apartment.  Bouvard  went  to  talk  for  a  moment  in 
a  bedroom  adjoining  the  drawing-room  where  Min- 
oret,  whose  mistrust  was  awakening,  was  waiting; 


96  URSULE  MIROUET 

but  Bouvard  came  to  fetch  him  directly  and  ushered 
him  into  this  room  occupied  by  the  mysterious 
Swedenborgian  and  a  woman  seated  in  an  armchair. 
This  woman  did  not  get  up  at  all,  and  did  not  seem 
to  notice  the  entrance  of  the  two  old  men. 

"What!  no  more  tub?"  said  Minoret,  smiling. 

"Nothing  but  the  power  of  God, "gravely  replied 
the  Swedenborgian,  who  appeared  to  Minoret  to  be 
about  fifty  years  old. 

The  three  men  sat  down,  and  the  stranger  began 
to  talk.  They  talked  about  the  weather,  to  the 
great  surprise  of  old  Minoret,  who  thought  he  was 
being  humbugged.  The  Swedenborgian  questioned 
the  visitor  upon  his  scientific  opinions,  and  evi- 
dently seemed  to  be  taking  time  to  examine  him. 

"You  come  here  out  of  mere  curiosity,  monsieur," 
he  finally  said.  "I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  prostitut- 
ing a  power,  which,  in  my  conviction,  emanates 
from  God;  if  I  were  to  make  a  bad  or  frivolous  use 
of  it,  it  might  be  withdrawn  from  me.  Neverthe- 
less, it  is  a  question,  so  Monsieur  Bouvard  tells  me, 
of  changing  a  contrary  opinion  to  our  own,  and  of 
enlightening  an  honest  scholar;  so  I  will  gratify 
you.  This  woman  whom  you  see,"  he  said,  point- 
ing to  the  strange  woman,  "is  in  a  somnambulistic 
sleep.  According  to  the  confessions  and  manifesta- 
tions of  all  somnambulists,  this  condition  consti- 
tutes a  delicious  life  during  which  the  inmost  being, 
freed  from  all  the  fetters  which  are  brought  into 
the  exercise  of  its  faculties  by  visible  nature,  wan- 
ders through  the  world  which  we  wrongfully  call 


URSULE  MIROUET  97 

invisible.  Sight  and  hearing  then  exercise  them- 
selves more  perfectly  than  in  the  condition  called 
waking,  and  possibly  without  the  aid  of  those  organs 
which  are  the  sheaths  for  those  luminous  swords 
called  sight  and  hearing!  For  a  man  put  into  this 
condition,  distances  and  material  objects  do  not 
exist,  or  are  traversed  by  a  life  that  is  within  us, 
and  for  which  our  body  is  a  reservoir,  a  necessary 
prop,  an  envelope.  Terms  are  wanting  for  such 
f reshl  y  recovered  effects ;  for  nowadays  the  words 
imponderable,  intangible,  invisible,  have  no  meaning 
relative  to  the  fluid  whose  action  is  demonstrated 
by  magnetism.  Light  is  weighable  by  its  heat, 
which,  by  penetrating  bodies,  increases  their  vol- 
ume, and  electricity  is  certainly  only  too  tangible. 
We  have  condemned  things  instead  of  accusing  the 
imperfection  of  our  agents." 

"Is  she  asleep?"  said  Minoret,  examining  the 
woman,  who  seemed  to  him  to  belong  to  the  in- 
ferior class. 

"Her  body  is  in  some  degree  annihilated,"  replied 
the  Swedenborgian.  "Ignorant  people  take  this 
condition  for  sleep.  But  she  will  prove  to  you  that 
there  exists  a  spiritual  universe  and  that  the  soul 
does  not  recognize  the  laws  of  the  material  uni- 
verse. I  will  send  her  to  any  region  that  you  wish, 
twenty  leagues  away  or  to  China ;  she  will  tell  you 
what  is  happening  there." 

"Send  her  to  my  home  only,  at  Nemours,"  Min- 
oret requested. 

"I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  replied  the 
7 


98  URSULE  MIROUET 

mysterious  man.  "Give  me  your  hand;  you  shall 
be  both  actor  and  spectator,  cause  and  effect" 

He  took  Minoret's  passive  hand;  he  held  it  for  a 
moment  whilst  appearing  to  be  collecting  himself, 
and  with  his  other  hand  seized  the  hand  of  the 
woman  sitting  in  the  armchair;  then  he  placed  the 
doctor's  in  that  of  the  woman,  whilst  signing  to 
the  old  unbeliever  to  seat  himself  beside  this  priest- 
ess without  a  tripod.  Minoret  noticed  a  slight 
quivering  in  this  woman's  exceedingly  calm  fea- 
tures when  they  were  united  by  the  Swedenbor- 
gian;  but  this  movement,  although  marvelous  in  its 
effect,  was  wonderfully  simple. 

"Obey  this  gentleman, "  said  this  person,  extend- 
ing his  hand  over  the  woman's  head,  who  seemed 
to  inhale  both  light  and  life  from  him,  "and  remem- 
ber that  all  you  do  for  him  will  please  me." 

"Now  you  can  speak  to  her,"  said  he  to  Minoret. 

"Go  to  Nemours,  Rue  des  Bourgeois,  to  my 
house,"  said  the  doctor. 

"Give  her  time,  leave  your  hand  in  hers  until 
she  proves  to  you  by  what  she  tells  you  that  she 
has  got  there,"  said  Bouvard  to  his  old  friend. 

"I  see  a  river,"  replied  the  woman  in  a  feeble 
voice  whilst  seeming  to  be  looking  within  herself 
with  profound  attention,  in  spite  of  her  lowered  lids, 
"I  see  a  pretty  garden — " 

"Why  do  you  go  in  by  the  river  and  the  garden  ?" 
said  Minoret. 

"Because  they  are  there." 

"Who?" 


URSULE  MIROUET  99 

"The  young  girl  and  the  nurse  of  whom  you  are 
thinking." 

"What  is  the  garden  like?"  asked  Minoret 

"On  the  right  as  you  go  in  by  the  little  stairway 
leading  down  to  the  river,  there  is  a  long  brick 
gallery  in  which  I  see  books,  and  ending  in  a 
rambling  barracks  decorated  with  little  wooden  bells 
and  red  eggs.  On  the  left,  the  wall  is  covered  with 
a  clump  of  climbing  plants,  Virginia  creeper,  and 
Virginia  jasmine.  In  the  centre  is  a  little  sundial. 
There  are  many  pots  of  flowers.  Your  ward  exam- 
ines her  flowers,  shows  them  to  her  nurse,  makes 
holes  with  a  dibble  and  puts  in  some  seeds — The 
nurse  is  raking  the  paths — Although  this  young  girl 
is  as  pure  as  an  angel,  there  is  a  dawning  of  love 
within  her,  faint  as  the  morning  twilight" 

"For  whom?"  asked  the  doctor,  who  till  now, 
was  persuaded  that  no  one  could  tell  him  anything 
without  being  somnambulistic.  He  always  believed 
there  was  some  jugglery. 

"You  know  nothing  about  it,  although  you  were 
lately  somewhat  anxious  when  she  grew  into  a 
woman,"  she  said  smiling.  "The  working  of  her 
heart  has  followed  that  of  Nature — " 

"And  it  is  a  common  working-woman  who 
speaks  like  this?"  cried  the  old  doctor. 

"In  this  state  people  express  themselves  with 
peculiar  clearness,"  replied  Bouvard. 

"But  whom  does  Ursule  love?" 

"Ursule  does  not  know  that  she  is  in  love,"  re- 
plied the  woman,  with  a  little  movement  of  the  head, 


100  URSULE  MIROUET 

"she  is  much  too  angelic  to  know  desire  or  any- 
thing whatever  about  love;  but  she  is  engrossed  by 
him,  she  thinks  of  him,  she  even  resists  it,  but  re- 
turns to  it  in  spite  of  her  determination  to  refrain. 
— She  is  at  the  piano — " 

"But  who  is  it?" 

"The  son  of  a  lady  who  lives  opposite — " 

"Madame  de  Portenduere  ?" 

"Portenduere,  do  you  say?"  rejoined  the  som- 
nambulist, "I  daresay.  But  there  is  no  danger,  he 
is  not  in  the  country." 

"Have  they  spoken  to  each  other?"  asked  the 
doctor. 

"Never.  They  have  looked  at  each  other.  She 
thinks  him  charming.  In  fact,  he  is  a  handsome 
man  and  has  a  good  heart  She  has  seen  him 
from  her  window,  they  have  also  seen  each  other 
in  church;  but  the  young  man  thinks  no  more 
about  it" 

"His  name?" 

"Ah!  to  tell  you  that,  I  must  read  it  or  hear  it — 
He  is  called  Savinien,  she  has  just  uttered  his  name ; 
she  finds  it  sweet  to  pronounce;  she  has  already 
looked  out  his  birthday  in  her  almanac,  she  has  put 
a  little  red  dot  against  it — Such  childishness!  Oh! 
she  will  love  well,  but  with  as  much  purity  as 
strength;  she  is  not  a  girl  to  love  twice,  and  love 
will  tinge  her  soul  and  penetrate  it  so  thoroughly 
that  it  will  drive  out  every  other  feeling." 

"Where  do  you  see  that?" 

"Within  her.     She  will  know  how  to  suffer ;  she 


NEMOURS,   RUE  DES  BOURGEOIS. 


"Obey  this  gentleman"  said  this  person,  extending 
his  hand  over  the  -woman's  head,  who  seemed  to 
inhale  both  light  and  life  from  him,  "and  remember 
that  all  you  do  for  him  will  please  me." 

"'Now  you  can  speak  to  her','  said  he  to  Minor et. 

"Go  to  Nemours,  Rue  dcs  Bourgeois,  to  my 
house"  said  the  doctor. 


URSULE  MIROUET  IOI 

has  this  from  someone,  for  her  father  and  mother 
have  suffered  much!" 

This  last  remark  upset  the  doctor,  who  was  less 
staggered  than  surprised.  It  may  be  as  well  to  note 
here  that  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  elapsed  between  each 
of  the  woman's  sentences, during  which  her  attention 
became  more  and  more  concentrated.  They  could 
see  her  looking !  Her  forehead  presented  an  extraor- 
dinary appearance ;  the  inward  efforts  were  depicted 
there,  it  cleared  or  contracted  through  some  power 
the  effects  of  which  Minoret  had  only  remarked  in 
dying  persons  at  those  moments  in  which  they  are 
gifted  with  the  power  of  prophecy.  Several  times 
she  made  gestures  which  were  like  Ursule's. 

"Oh!  question  her,"  resumed  the  mysterious 
person  addressing  Minoret,  "she  will  tell  you 
secrets  that  you  alone  can  know." 

"Does  Ursule  love  me?"  continued  Minoret 

"Almost  as  much  as  she  does  God,"  she  said 
with  a  smile,  "she  is  also  very  unhappy  about  your 
unbelief.  You  do  not  believe  in  God,  as  if  you 
could  prevent  Him  from  being!  His  word  fills  the 
world !  In  this  you  are  the  only  cause  of  anxiety 
to  this  poor  child — Ah !  she  is  playing  scales ;  she 
wishes  she  were  an  even  better  musician  than  she 
is,  she  frets  about  it.  This  is  what  she  is  thinking: 
'If  I  could  sing  well,  if  I  had  a  beautiful  voice, 
when  he  comes  to  his  mother's  my  voice  would  reach 
his  ears.'  " 

Doctor  Minoret  took  out  his  pocket-book  and 
noted  down  the  exact  time. 


102  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Can  you  tell  me  what  sort  of  seeds  she  has 
sown?" 

"Mignonette,  sweet  peas,  balsam — " 

"And  the  last?" 

"Larkspur." 

"Where  is  my  money?" 

"At  your  notary's;  but  you  invest  it  cautiously 
without  losing  a  single  day's  interest." 

"Yes ;  but  where  is  the  money  1  keep  at  Nemours 
for  my  half-yearly  expenditur-e  ?" 

"You  put  it  in  a  big  book  bound  in  red,  entitled 
Pandects  of  Justinian,  volume  II.,  between  the  last 
two  leaves;  the  book  is  above  the  glass-paneled 
sideboard  in  the  folio  division.  You  have  a  whole 
row  of  it.  Your  funds  are  in  the  last  volume,  on  the 
salon  side.  Stay!  volume  III.  is  before  volume 
II.  But  you  have  no  money,  it  is — " 

"Bills  of  one  thousand  francs?"  asked  the  doctor. 

"I  cannot  see  clearly,  they  are  folded  up.  No, 
there  are  two  bills  of  five  hundred  francs  each." 

"Can  you  see  them?" 

"Yes." 

"What  are  they  like?" 

"One  is  very  yellow  and  old,  the  other  white  and 
almost  new. — " 

This  last  part  of  the  examination  startled  Doctor 
Minoret  He  looked  at  Bouvard  stupefied;  but 
Bouvard  and  the  Swedenborgian,  accustomed  to  the 
astonishment  of  unbelievers,  were  talking  in  a  low 
voice  without  appearing  either  surprised  or  as- 
tounded. Minoret  begged  them  to  let  him  return 


URSULE  M1ROUET  103 

after  dinner.  The  anti-Mesmerist  wanted  to  collect 
himself,  to  recover  his  profound  terror,  to  test  afresh 
this  immense  power,  to  submit  it  to  decisive  ex- 
periments, to  put  it  questions  whose  solution  should 
remove  every  kind  of  doubt 

"Be  here  at  nine  o'clock  to-night,"  said  the 
stranger;  "I  will  come  back  for  you." 

Doctor  Minoret  was  in  such  a  violent  state,  that 
he  left  without  bowing,  followed  by  Bouvard,  who 
cried  out  to  him  at  intervals : 

"Well?    Well?" 

"I  think  I  am  mad,  Bouvard,"  replied  Minoret  on 
the  step  of  the  gateway.  "If  the  woman  has  told 
the  truth  about  Ursule,  and  as  Ursule  is  the  only 
person  in  the  world  who  knows  what  this  sorceress 
has  revealed  to  me,  you  will  be  right.  I  wish  I  had 
wings  to  go  to  Nemours  to  verify  her  assertions. 
But  I  shall  hire  a  carriage  and  leave  to-night  at  ten 
o'clock.  Ah!  I  am  losing  my  head." 

"What  would  happen  to  you  if,  having  known  an 
invalid  incurable  for  many  years,  you  saw  him 
cured  in  five  seconds ;  if  you  saw  this  great  mag- 
netizer  make  perspiration  pour  profusely  from  a  per- 
son who  had  ringworm;  if  you  saw  him  make  a 
crippled  woman  walk?" 

"Let  us  dine  together,  Bouvard,  and  do  not  leave 
me  until  nine  o'clock.  I  want  to  try  a  decisive  un- 
impeachable experiment" 

"Very  well,  my  old  friend,"  replied  the  mesmer- 
ist doctor. 

The  two  enemies,  reconciled,  went  to  dine  at  the 


104  URSULE  MIROUET 

Palais-Royal.  After  an  animated  conversation  which 
helped  Minoret  to  divert  the  fever  of  ideas  that 
was  ravaging  his  brain,  Bouvard  said  to  him : 

"If  you  acknowledge  that  this  woman  has  the 
faculty  of  reducing  or  of  traversing  space,  if  you 
admit  the  certainty  that,  from  the  Assumption,  she 
hears  and  sees  all  that  is  being  said  and  done  at 
Nemours,  then  you  must  admit  all  the  other  mag- 
netic effects,  which  to  an  unbeliever  are  as  incredi- 
ble as  these  are.  So  ask  her  for  one  proof  only  that 
shall  satisfy  you,  for  you  may  think  that  we  pro- 
cured all  this  information ;  but  we  could  not  know, 
for  instance,  what  will  take  place  at  nine  o'clock,  in 
your  house,  in  your  ward's  room ;  remember  or  write 
down  what  the  somnambulist  will  see  or  hear,  and 
then  hurry  home.  This  little  Ursule,  whom  I  do  not 
know  at  all,  is  not  our  accomplice;  and,  if  she  has 
said  or  done  what  you  have  written,  then  bow  your 
head,  proud  Sicambrus!" 

The  two  friends  returned  to  the  room,  and  there 
found  the  somnambulist,  who  did  not  recognize  Doc- 
tor Minoret  This  woman's  eyes  gently  closed  under 
the  hand  which  the  Swedenborgian  stretched  over 
her  at  intervals,  and  she  resumed  the  attitude  in 
which  Minoret  had  seen  her  before  dinner.  When 
the  woman's  hand  and  the  doctor's  had  been  placed 
in  communication,  he  begged  her  to  tell  him  all 
that  was  passing  at  his  house  in  Nemours  at  that 
moment 

"What  is  Ursule  doing?"  he  said. 

"She  is  undressed,  she  has  finished  putting  on 


URSULE  MIROUET  105 

her  curl-papers,  she  is  kneeling  on  her  prie-Dieu,  in 
front  of  an  ivory  crucifix  fastened  on  a  red  velvet 
panel." 

"What  is  she  saying?" 

"She  is  saying  her  evening  prayers,  she  com- 
mends herself  to  God,  beseeches  Him  to  keep  her 
mind  from  evil  thoughts;  she  examines  her  con- 
science and  goes  over  all  she  has  done  during  the 
day,  in  order  to  know  if  she  has  failed  in  any  of  His 
commandments  or  those  of  the  church.  In  fact, 
she  sifts  her  soul,  poor  dear  little  creature!" — The 
somnambulist's  eyes  were  wet — "She  has  not  com- 
mitted any  sin,  but  she  reproaches  herself  with 
having  thought  too  much  about  Monsieur  Savinien, " 
she  continued,  "she  breaks  off  to  wonder  what  he  is 
doing  in  Paris,  and  prays  God  to  make  him  happy. 
She  finishes  with  you  and  says  a  prayer  aloud." 

"Can  you  repeat  it?" 

"Yes." 

Minoret  took  his  pencil  and  wrote,  at  the  som- 
nambulist's dictation,  the  following  prayer,  evi- 
dently composed  by  the  Abbe  Chaperon : 

"  *O  God!  if  Thou  art  pleased  with  Thy  servant, 
who  adores  Thee,  and  prays  to  Thee  with  as  much 
love  as  fervor,  who  tries  in  every  way  to  keep  Thy 
Holy  Commandments,  who  would  gladly  die  as  did 
Thy  Son  to  glorify  Thy  name,  and  who  would  dwell 
within  Thy  shadow,  Thou  who  readest  all  hearts, 
graciously  deign  to  open  my  godfather's  eyes,  set 
him  in  the  way  of  salvation,  and  impart  to  him  Thy 
grace  so  that  he  may  live  his  last  days  in  Thee; 


106  URSULE  MIROUET 

keep  him  from  all  harm  and  let  me  suffer  in  his 
stead!  Good  Saint-Ursule,  my  beloved  patroness, 
and  Thou,  Divine  Mother  of  God,  queen  of  Heaven, 
archangels  and  saints  of  Paradise,  hear  me,  and  join 
Thy  intercessions  to  mine,  and  have  pity  upon  us !'  " 

The  somnambulist  imitated  the  child's  innocent 
gestures  of  holy  inspirations  so  perfectly,  that  Doctor 
Minoret's  eyes  were  full  of  tears. 

"Does  she  say  anything  else?"  asked  Minoret 

"Yes." 

"Repeat  it." 

"'Dear  godfather!  who  will  play  backgammon 
with  him  in  Paris?'  She  blows  out  the  candle, 
lays  her  head  down,  and  goes  to  sleep.  Now  she  is 
off!  She  looks  very  pretty  in  her  little  nightcap." 

Minoret  bowed  to  the  great  stranger,  shook  hands 
with  Bouvard,  rapidly  descended  the  stairs,  and  ran 
to  a  coach-stand  which  then  existed  under  the  gate- 
way of  a  hdtel  that  has  since  been  demolished  to  make 
way  for  the  Rue  d'Alger ;  there  he  found  a  driver  and 
asked  him  if  he  would  agree  to  start  at  once  for  Fon- 
tainebleau.  Once  the  fare  was  settled  and  ac- 
cepted, the  old  man,  once  more  revived,  set  out 
immediately.  According  to  his  agreement,  he  rested 
the  horse  at  Essonne,  caught  the  diligence  for  Ne- 
mours, found  a  place  in  it,  and  dismissed  his  cab- 
man. Reaching  home  about  five  in  the  morning,  he 
went  to  bed  amidst  the  ruins  of  all  his  previous 
ideas  about  physiology,  nature,  and  metaphysics, 
and  slept  until  nine  o'clock,  so  greatly  had  his  jour- 
ney tired  him. 


Upon  waking,  quite  sure  that,  since  his  return, 
no  one  had  crossed  the  threshold  of  his  door,  the 
doctor  proceeded,  not  without  an  unconquerable 
dread,  to  the  verification  of  facts.  He  himself  was 
ignorant  of  the  difference  between  the  two  bank 
bills  and  the  change  of  the  volumes  of  the  Pandects. 
The  somnambule  had  seen  well.  He  rang  for  La 
Bougival. 

"Tell  Ursule  to  come  to  speak  to  me,"  he  said, 
sitting  down  in  the  middle  of  his  library. 

The  child  came,  ran  to  him  and  kissed  him ;  the 
doctor  took  her  on  his  knee,  where  she  sat  mingling 
her  beautiful  fair  locks  with  her  old  friend's  white 
hairs. 

"Is  anything  the  matter,  godfather?" 

"Yes,  but  promise  me,  by  your  salvation,  to 
answer  my  questions  frankly,  without  evasion." 

Ursule  blushed  right  up  to  her  forehead. 

"Oh!  I  shall  not  ask  you  anything  that  you 
cannot  tell  me,"  he  continued,  seeing  the  shame  of 
first  love  troubling  the  hitherto  childish  purity  of 
those  beauutiful  eyes. 

"Speak,  godfather." 

"With  what  thought  did  you  finish  your  evening 
prayers  yesterday,  and  at  what  time  did  you  say 
them?" 

"It  was  a  quarter-past  nine,  half-past  nine." 
(107) 


108  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Well  then,  repeat  me  your  last  prayer." 

The  young  girl  hoped  that  her  voice  might  com- 
municate her  faith  to  the  unbeliever;  she  left  her 
place,  knelt  down,  joined  her  hands  fervently,  a 
radiant  light  illumined  her  face,  she  looked  at  the 
old  man  and  said : 

"What  I  asked  of  God  yesterday,  I  asked  this 
morning,  and  I  will  ask  for  it  until  it  is  granted  me. " 

Then  she  repeated  her  prayer  with  renewed  and 
more  powerful  expression ;  but,  to  her  great  aston- 
ishment, her  godfather  interrupted  her  by  finishing 
the  prayer. 

"All  right,  Ursule,"  said  the  doctor,  taking  his 
godchild  on  his  knee  again.  "When  you  went  to 
sleep  with  your  head  on  the  pillow,  did  you  not  say 
to  yourself,  'That  dear  godfather!  who  will  play 
backgammon  with  him  in  Paris?'  " 

Ursule  sprang  up  as  if  the  trump  of  the  Judgment 
Day  had  sounded  in  her  ears ;  she  gave  a  cry  of  ter- 
ror; her  dilated  eyes  gazed  at  the  old  man  with 
horrible  fixity. 

"Who  are  you,  godfather  ?  From  whom  do  you 
get  such  a  power?"  she  asked,  supposing  that,  not 
to  believe  in  God,  he  must  have  made  a  compact 
with  the  angel  of  darkness. 

"What  did  you  sow  in  your  garden  yesterday?" 

"Mignonette,  sweet  peas  and  balsam." 

"And  lastly  some  larkspur?" 

She  fell  on  her  knees. 

"Do  not  frighten  me,  godfather;  but  you  were 
here,  were  you  not?" 


URSULE  MIROUET  IOQ 

"Am  I  not  always  with  you?"  replied  the  doctor, 
jesting  in  order  to  respect  this  innocent  creature's 
reason,  "let  us  go  to  your  room." 

He  gave  her  his  arm  and  went  up  the  stairs. 

"Your  legs  are  trembling,  my  dear  friend,"  she 
said. 

"Yes,  I  am  as  if  thunderstruck." 

"Are  you  at  last  going  to  believe  in  God?'  she 
cried  with  artless  joy,  showing  the  tears  in  her 
eyes. 

The  old  man  looked  at  the  simple,  pretty  room  he 
had  arranged  for  Ursule.  On  the  floor,  a  plain,  cheap, 
green  carpet  that  she  kept  in  exquisite  cleanliness; 
on  the  walls,  a  pale  gray  paper  strewn  with  roses 
and  their  green  foliage;  the  windows,  which  looked 
on  the  courtyard,  were  hung  with  calico  curtains 
trimmed  with  a  band  of  some  pink  stuff;  between 
the  two  windows,  under  a  long,  high  glass,  was  a 
gilded  wooden  bracket  covered  with  marble  upon 
which  stood  a  blue  Sevres  vase  that  she  used  to  fill 
with  flowers;  and,  opposite  the  fireplace,  a  little 
chest  of  drawers  in  charming  marquetry  with  a  top 
of  the  marble  known  as  breccia  of  Aleppo.  The  bed, 
hung  with  old  chintz  and  with  curtains  of  pink- 
lined  chintz,  was  one  of  those  duchess  beds  so  com- 
mon in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  which  was 
ornamented  with  a  tuft  of  feathers  carved  above 
the  four  fluted  posts  at  each  angle.  An  old  clock, 
encased  in  a  sort  of  tortoise-shell  monument  en- 
crusted with  ivory  arabesques,  adorned  the  mantel- 
piece, of  which  the  marble  top  and  candlesticks, 


110  URSULE  MIROUET 

and  the  glass  with  its  gray  painted  frame  pre- 
sented a  remarkable  harmony  of  tone,  color  and 
style.  A  big  wardrobe,  the  doors  of  which  were 
covered  with  landscapes  made  in  different  woods, 
some  of  which  were  of  a  green  tint,  and  which  are 
no  longer  to  be  found  in  the  trade,  doubtless  con- 
tained her  linen  and  dresses.  In  this  room  he 
breathed  the  fragrance  of  Heaven.  The  exact  ar- 
rangement of  things  showed  a  spirit  of  order  and  a 
sense  of  harmony  which  would  certainly  have 
struck  everybody,  even  a  Minoret-Levrault  One 
could  especially  see  how  much  Ursule  loved  the 
things  that  surrounded  her,  and  how  she  delighted 
in  a  room  which  was  bound  up,  so  to  speak,  in  her 
childhood  and  girlhood  life.  Reviewing  everything 
according  to  its  bearings,  the  guardian  ascertained 
that  it  was  possible  to  see  over  into  Madame  Por- 
tenduere's  from  Ursule's  room.  During  the  night, 
he  had  reflected  on  the  line  of  conduct  he  ought  to 
take  with  Ursule  concerning  the  secret  surprise  of 
this  growing  passion.  An  examination  would  com- 
promise him  with  his  ward.  Either  he  must  ap- 
prove or  disapprove  of  this  love;  in  either  case,  his 
position  would  be  false.  So  he  had  determined  to 
examine  the  respective  situations  of  young  Porten- 
duere  and  Ursule  to  find  out  whether  he  ought  to 
fight  against  this  partiality  before  it  became 
irresistible.  An  old  man  only  could  display  so 
much  wisdom.  Still  quivering  under  the  blows  of 
the  truth  of  the  magnetic  facts,  he  kept  turning 
round  and  looking  at  the  smallest  objects  in  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  III 

room,  and  he  wanted  to   cast  his  eye  over  the 
almanac  hung  at  the  corner  of  the  fireplace. 

"These  horrid  candlesticks  are  too  heavy  for 
your  pretty  little  hands,"  he  said,  taking  up  the 
candlesticks  of  marble  decorated  with  copper. 

He  weighed  them  in  his  hand,  looked  at  the 
almanac,  took  it  and  said : 

"This  seems  to  me  very  ugly  also.  Why  do  you 
keep  this  postman's  almanac  in  such  a  pretty  room  ?" 
"Oh!  do  let  me  have  it,  godfather." 
"No,  you  shall  have  another  one  to-morrow." 
He  went  down  with  this  convincing  proof,  shut 
himself  up  in  his  study,  looked  for  Saint  Savinien, 
and  found,  as  the  somnambulist  had  said,  a  tiny, 
red  dot  in  front  of  the  nineteenth  of  October ;  he 
also  saw  one  opposite  the  day  of  Saint  Denis,  his 
own  patron  saint  and  before  Saint  Jean,  the  cure's 
patron.  This  point,  the  size  of  a  pin's  head,  the 
sleeping  woman  had  seen  in  spite  of  distance  and 
obstacles.  Until  night  time  the  old  man  meditated 
upon  these  events,  which  were  even  more  immense 
to  him  than  to  anyone  else.  He  was  bound  to  yield 
to  evidence.  A  strong  wall  crumbled  away,  so  to 
speak,  within  him,  for  he  lived  supported  by  two 
foundations;  his  indifference  to  religious  matters 
and  his  disbelief  in  magnetism.  By  proving  that 
the  senses,  a  purely  physical  construction,  organs 
whose  powers  were  accounted  for,  were  bounded 
by  some  of  the  attributes  of  the  infinite,  magnetism 
overthrew,  or  at  least  seemed  to  him  to  overthrow, 
Spinosa's  powerful  argumentation ;  the  infinite  and 


112  URSULE  MIROUET 

the  finite,  two  elements  that  according  to  this  great 
man  were  incompatible,  proved  to  be  one  within  the 
other.  Whatever  power  he  might  have  accorded  to 
divisibility,  to  the  mobility  of  matter,  he  could  not 
admit  that  it  had  half-divine  qualities.  After  all,  he 
had  grown  too  old  to  connect  these  phenomena  with 
a  system,  to  compare  them  with  those  of  sleep, 
sight,  and  light.  All  his  science,  based  upon  the 
assertions  of  the  school  of  Locke  and  Condillac,  was 
in  ruins.  Seeing  his  hollow  idols  in  pieces,  his  in- 
credulity necessarily  faltered.  And  so  all  the  ad- 
vantage in  this  struggle  beween  Catholic  childhood 
and  Voltairean  old  age,  was  to  be  with  Ursule.  A 
light  was  streaming  on  this  dismantled  fort,  and  on 
these  ruins.  The  voice  of  prayer  was  bursting 
from  the  bosom  of  the  fragments!  Nevertheless, 
the  stubborn  old  man  picked  a  quarrel  with  his 
doubts.  Although  he  was  struck  to  the  heart,  he 
would  not  make  up  his  mind,  and  constantly  strug- 
gled against  God.  And  yet,  his  spirit  seemed 
wavering,  he  was  no  longer  the  same.  Dreamy 
beyond  measure,  he  would  read  Pascal's  Pens'ees. 
Bossuet's  sublime  Histoire  des  Variations,  he  read 
Bonald  and  Saint-Augustin ;  he  also  insisted  upon 
running  through  the  works  of  Swedenborg  and  the 
late  Saint-Martin,  of  which  the  mysterious  man  had 
spoken.  The  edifice  built  up  in  this  man  by  mate- 
rialism was  cracking  in  every  part,  it  only  needed 
one  more  shake ;  and,  when  his  heart  was  ripe  for 
God,  he  fell  into  the  heavenly  vineyard  as  the  fruits 
fall.  Several  times  already  whilst  playing  with  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  113 

cure,  his  godchild  beside  them,  he  had  asked  ques- 
tions, which,  considering  his  opinions,  appeared 
strange  to  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  yet  ignorant  of  the 
inward  labor  with  which  God  was  redressing  this 
beautiful  conscience. 

"Do  you  believe  in  apparitions?"  asked  the  un- 
believer of  his  pastor  whilst  interrupting  the  game. 

"Cardan,  a  great  philosopher  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  has  said  that  he  has  seen  some,"  replied 
the  cure. 

"I  know  all  those  that  have  engrossed  scholars,  I 
have  just  read  Plotin  over  again.  At  this  moment, 
I  am  questioning  you  as  a  Catholic,  and  ask  you  if 
you  think  that  a  dead  man  can  revisit  the  living." 

"But  Jesus  appeared  to  His  Apostles  after  His 
death,"  rejoined  the  cure.  "The  church  must  have 
faith  in  our  Saviour's  apparitions.  As  to  miracles, 
they  are  not  wanting,"  said  the  Abbe  Chaperon, 
smiling,  "would  you  care  to  hear  the  most  recent? 
It  happened  during  the  eighteenth  century." 

"Bah!" 

"Yes,  the  blessed  Marie-Alphonse  de  Liguori 
knew  of  the  Pope's  death  far  away  from  Rome,  the 
very  moment  when  the  Holy  Father  was  expiring, 
and  there  are  numerous  witnesses  of  this  miracle. 
The  sainted  bishop,  being  in  a  trance,  heard  the 
sovereign  pontiff's  last  words  and  repeated  them  be- 
fore several  persons.  The  courier  entrusted  to  an- 
nounce it  to  the  Bishop,  only  arrived  thirty  hours 
after—" 

"Jesuit!"  replied  old  Minoret,  jokingly,  "1  do 
8 


114  URSULE  MIROUET 

not  ask  you  for  proofs,  I  ask  you  if  you  believe 
in  it" 

"I  believe  that  the  apparition  depends  very  much 
on  the  person  who  sees  it,"  said  the  cure,  still  teas- 
ing the  unbeliever. 

"My  friend,  I  am  not  laying  a  trap  for  you;  what 
do  you  believe  in  all  this?" 

"I  believe  the  power  of  God  to  be  infinite,"  said 
the  abbe. 

"When  I  am  dead,  if  I  become  reconciled  with  God, 
I  will  pray  Him  to  let  me  appear  to  you,"  said  the 
doctor,  laughing. 

"That  is  precisely  the  agreement  made  between 
Cardan  and  his  friend,"  replied  the  cure. 

"Ursule,"  said  Minoret,  "if  ever  any  danger 
threatens  you,  call  me  and  I  will  come." 

"You  have  just  said  in  one  word  the  touching 
elegy  entitled  Ntere,  by  Andre  Chenier,"  replied 
the  cure.  "But  poets  are  only  great  because  they 
know  how  to  clothe  facts  or  the  sentiments  of 
eternally  living  pictures." 

"Why  do  you  speak  of  your  death,  dear  god- 
father?" said  the  young  girl  in  a  mournful  tone. 
"We  Christians  do  not  die,  our  tomb  is  the  cradle 
of  our  soul." 

"Well,"  said  the  doctor,  smiling,  "we  must  some 
day  leave  this  world,  and  when  I  am  no  longer 
here,  you  will  be  very  much  astonished  at  your 
good  fortune." 

"When  you  are  no  more,  my  beloved  friend,  my 
only  consolation  will  be  to  devote  my  life  to  you." 


URSULE  MIROUET  115 

"Tome,  dead?" 

"Yes.  All  the  good  works  that  I  might  be  able  to 
do  should  be  done  in  your  name  to  redeem  your 
mistakes.  I  should  pray  to  God  every  day,  so  that 
in  His  infinite  mercy  He  might  not  eternally  punish 
the  errors  of  a  day,  and  that  He  might  place  a 
soul  as  beautiful  and  pure  as  yours  close  to  Him- 
self, among  the  souls  of  the  blessed." 

This  answer,  said  with  angelic  candor  and  pro- 
nounced in  an  accent  full  of  conviction,  overwhelmed 
fallacy  and  converted  Denis  Minoret  as  Saint-Paul 
was  converted.  A  ray  of  inward  light  dazzled  him, 
whilst  this  tenderness,  reaching  all  through  his  life 
to  come,  made  his  eyes  fill  with  tears.  There  was 
something  electric  in  this  sudden  effect  of  grace. 
The  cure  clasped  his  hands  and  rose,  disturbed. 
The  child,  astonished  at  her  success,  burst  into 
tears.  The  old  man  stood  up  as  if  someone  had 
called  him,  gazed  into  space  as  if  he  could  see  some 
aurora,  then  he  bent  his  knee  upon  his  armchair, 
folded  his  hands  and  cast  his  eyes  upon  the  ground 
like  a  profoundly  humiliated  man. 

"O  God!"  he  said  in  a  voice  of  emotion,  and 
raising  his  forehead,  "if  anyone  can  obtain  my  for- 
giveness and  lead  me  to  Thee,  is  it  not  this  spotless 
creature  ?  Forgive  the  repentant  old  age  that  this 
glorious  child  offers  Thee!" 

He  mentally  lifted  up  his  soul  to  God,  praying 
Him  to  complete  his  enlightenment  by  His  science 
after  having  overwhelmed  him  with  His  mercy;  he 
turned  to  the  cure  and  stretching  out  his  hand,  said: 


Il6  URSULE  MIROUET 

"My  dear  pastor,  I  am  a  little  child  again,  I  be- 
long to  you  and  give  you  up  my  soul." 

Ursule  covered  her  godfather's  hand  with  joyful 
tears  and  kisses.  The  old  man  took  the  child  upon 
his  knees  and  called  her  gaily  his  godmother.  The 
cure,  completely  moved,  recited  the  Veni,  Creator,  in 
a  sort  of  religious  effusion.  These  three  kneeling 
Christians  used  this  hymn  as  their  evening  prayer. 

"What  is  the  matter?"  asked  La  Bougival,  aston- 
ished. 

"At  last  my  godfather  believes  in  God,"  replied 
Ursule. 

"Ah!  upon  my  faith!  he  only  needed  that  to  be 
quite  perfect,"  cried  the  old  Bressane,  crossing  her- 
self with  grave  naivete. 

"Dear  doctor,"  said  the  good  priest,  "you  will 
soon  understand  the  greatness  of  religion  and  the 
necessity  of  its  observances;  you  will  find  its  phil- 
osophy, as  regards  its  humanity,  much  loftier  than 
that  of  the  most  daring  intelligence." 

The  cure,  who  displayed  an  almost  childish  de- 
light, then  agreed  to  catechise  the  old  man  whilst 
conferring  with  him  twice  a  week.  Thus,  the  con- 
version attributed  to  Ursule  and  to  a  spirit  of  sordid 
calculation  was  spontaneous.  The  cure,  who  had 
refrained  for  fourteen  years  from  touching  the  wounds 
of  this  heart,  even  whilst  deploring  them,  had  been 
applied  to  as  one  sends  for  the  surgeon  when  one 
knows  one's  self  to  be  hurt.  Since  this  scene,  every 
night  the  prayers  pronounced  by  Ursule  had  been 
said  together.  From  time  to  time  the  old  man  had 


URSULE  MIROUET  117 

felt  peace  succeeding  to  agitation  within  him. 
Having,  as  he  said,  God  for  a  responsible  editor  for 
unaccountable  things,  his  mind  was  at  rest.  His 
beloved  child  answered  that  by  this  he  could  well 
see  that  he  was  advancing  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
During  mass,  he  had  just  been  reading  the  prayers 
whilst  applying  his  senses  to  them,  for  he  had  risen 
after  a  first  conference  to  the  divine  idea  of  com- 
munion among  all  believers.  This  old  neophyte 
had  understood  the  eternal  symbol  attaching  to 
this  food,  which  faith  renders  necessary  when  it 
has  been  fathomed  in  its  inmost,  deep,  and  joyful 
meaning.  If  he  had  seemed  in  haste  to  return 
home,  it  was  to*thank  his  dear  little  godchild  for 
having  made  him  take  the  cowl,  according  to  the 
beautiful  expression  of  times  gone  by.  And  so  he 
was  holding  her  on  his  knee  in  the  salon  and 
giving  her  a  holy  kiss  on  the  forehead  at  the 
very  moment  when,  soiling  so  sacred  an  influence 
with  their  ignoble  fears,  his  collateral  heirs  were 
lavishing  the  coarsest  abuse  upon  Ursule.  The  old 
man's  eagerness  to  get  home,  his  asserted  scorn  of 
his  relations,  and  his  biting  answers  upon  leaving 
the  church  were  naturally  attributed  by  each  of 
the  heirs  to  the  hatred  for  them  with  which  Ursule 
was  inspiring  him. 

Whilst  the  godchild  was  playing  to  her  godfather 
variations  of  Weber's  Last  Thought,  a  fine  plot 
was  hatching  in  the  dining-room  of  the  Minoret- 
Levrault  household  which  was  to  result  in  bring- 
ing on  the  scene  one  of  the  chief  persons  in  this 


Il8  URSULE  MIROUET 

drama.  The  breakfast,  noisy  like  all  provincial 
breakfasts  and  enlivened  by  some  excellent  wines 
which  reach  Nemours  by  the  canal,  either  from 
Burgundy  or  La  Touraine,  lasted  more  than  two 
hours.  Zelie  had  sent  for  some  shell-fish,  salt  water 
fish  and  various  gastronomic  dainties,  in  order  to 
celebrate  Desire's  return. 

The  dining-room,  in  the  middle  of  which  the 
round  table  presented  a  gladdening  sight,  looked 
like  an  inn-room.  Satisfied  with  her  quantity  of 
stock,  Zelie  had  built  a  pavilion  between  her  im- 
mense yard  and  her  garden  planted  with  vegetables 
and  full  of  fruit  trees.  Everything,  with  her,  was 
only  for  cleanliness  and  solidity.*  Levrault-Lev- 
rault's  example  had  seemed  terrible  to  the  country. 
And  so  she  forbade  her  architect  to  lead  her  into 
any  similar  nonsense.  This  room  was  consequently 
hung  with  a  glazed  paper,  furnished  with  walnut 
chairs,  walnut  sideboards,  and  adorned  with  a 
faience  stove,  a  timepiece  and  a  barometer.  If  the 
plates  and  dishes  were  of  common  white  china,  the 
table  was  conspicuous  through  the  linen  and  abun- 
dant silver.  Once  the  coffee  had  been  served  by 
Zelie,  who  was  on  the  move  like  a  leaden  shot  in 
a  bottle  of  champagne,  for  she  contented  herself 
with  a  cook;  when  Desire,  the  future  barrister,  had 
been  told  all  about  the  great  event  of  the  morning 
and  its  consequences,  Zelie  shut  the  door,  and  the 
notary  Dionis  was  requested  to  speak.  From  the 
silence  that  ensued,  and  from  the  look  that  each 
heir  fixed  upon  this  authentic  face,  it  was  easy  to 


URSULE  MIROUET  119 

recognize  the  dominion  that  such  men  exercise  over 
families. 

"My  dear  children,"  said  he,  "your  uncle,  hav- 
ing been  born  in  1746,  is  eighty -three  years  old  to- 
day; now,  old  men  are  subject  to  follies,  and  this 
little—" 

"Viper!"  cried  Madame  Massin. 

"Wretch!"  said  Zelie. 

"Let  us  call  her  only  byname,"  rejoined  Dionis. 

"Well  then,  she  is  a  thief,"  said  Madame  Cre- 
miere. 

"A  pretty  thief,"  replied  Desire  Minoret 

"This  little  Ursule,"  resumed  Dionis,  "he  is 
very  fond  of.  In  the  interest  of  you  all,  my  clients, 
I  did  not  wait  until  this  morning  to  seek  informa- 
tion, and  this  is  what  I  know  about  this  young — " 

"Despoiler!"  cried  the  tax-gatherer. 

"Legacy-hunter!"  said  the  clerk. 

"Chut!  my  friends,"  said  the  notary,  "or  I  take 
my  hat,  leave  you  and  say  good-night." 

"Come,  papa,"  cried  Minoret  pouring  out  for  him 
a  small  glass  of  rum,  "take  it!  it  came  from  Rome 
itself.  Indeed,  it  is  worth  a  franc's  stage-fees." 

"It  is  true  that  Ursule  is  the  legitimate  daughter 
of  Joseph  Mirouet ;  but  her  father  is  the  natural  son 
of  Valentin  Mirouet,  your  uncle's  father-in-law. 
So  Ursule  is  Doctor  Denis  Minoret's  natural  niece. 
As  a  natural  niece,  the  will  the  doctor  may  make 
in  her  favor  would  be  hardly  assailable;  and,  if  he 
left  her  his  fortune  in  this  way,  you  would  bring 
a  sufficiently  serious  action  for  yourselves  against 


120  URSULE  MIROUET 

Ursule,  as  one  cannot  maintain  that  there  is  no  bond 
of  parentage  between  Ursule  and  the  doctor;  but 
this  suit  would  certainly  frighten  a  defenceless 
young  girl  and  might  lead  to  some  compromise." 

"The  severity  of  the  law  upon  the  claims  of  nat- 
ural children  is  so  great, "  said  the  newly-made  licen- 
tiate, anxious  to  show  off  his  knowledge,  "that, 
according  to  the  terms  of  a  decision  of  the  supreme 
Court  of  Appeal  of  the  seventh  of  July,  1817,  a  nat- 
ural child  can  lay  claim  to  nothing  from  his  natural 
grandfather,  not  even  maintenance.  So  you  see 
how  they  have  widened  the  parentage  of  the  natural 
child.  The  law  pursues  the  natural  child  even  to 
its  legitimate  descent,  for  it  alleges  that  the  liber- 
ality shown  to  the  grandchildren  applies  to  the  nat- 
ural son  by  interposition  of  person.  This  results 
from  comparing  Articles  757,  908  and  911  of  the 
Civil  Code.  The  Royal  Court  of  Paris  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  December  of  last  year  also  reduced 
the  legacy  left  to  the  legitimate  child  of  the  natural 
son  by  the  grandfather,  who,  most  assuredly,  as  a 
grandfather,  was  as  much  of  a  stranger  to  the  natural 
grandson  as  the  doctor,  as  an  uncle,  could  be  to 
Ursule." 

"All  that,"  said  Goupil,  "seems  to  me  only  to 
concern  the  question  of  gifts  made  by  the  grand- 
parents to  the  natural  descendants;  it  is  no  ques- 
tion at  all  of  the  uncles,  who  do  not  appear  to  me  to 
have  any  tie  of  kindred  with  the  legitimate  children 
of  their  natural  brothers-in-law.  Ursule  is  a 
stranger  to  Doctor  Minoret  I  recollect  a  decision 


URSULE  MIROUET  121 

of  the  Royal  Court  of  Colmar,  made  in  1825,  whilst 
1  was  finishing  reading  for  the  law,  by  which  it  was 
declared  that  once  a  natural  child  was  deceased,  his 
descendants  could  no  longer  be  the  object  of  interpo- 
sition. Now,  Ursule's  father  is  dead." 

Goupil's  argument  produced  what,  in  accounts  of 
legislative  sittings,  journalists  describe  by  this 
parenthesis :  (Profound  Sensation). 

"And  what  does  that  signify?"  cried  Dioriis, 
"that  the  case  of  gifts  made  by  the  uncle  of  a  natu- 
ral child  has  never  yet  come  before  the  court ;  but, 
let  it  come,  and  the  severity  of  the  French  law  to- 
ward natural  children  would  be  all  the  more  enforced 
as  we  live  in  an  a,ge  in  which  religion  is  respected. 
And  I  can  also  answer  for  it  that  over  this  lawsuit 
there  would  be  a  compromise,  particularly  when 
you  can  have  been  persuaded  to  drive  Ursule  to  the 
Court  of  Appeal." 

The  delight  of  heirs  finding  heaps  of  gold  broke 
out  into  smiles,  starts,  and  gestures  all  round  the 
table,  which  prevented  them  from  noticing  a  denial 
from  Goupil.  Then,  after  this  outburst,  profound 
silence  and  anxiety  followed  the  notary's  first  word, 
a  most  terrible  word: 

"But—" 

Dionis  then  saw  all  eyes  staring  at  him,  and  all 
faces  set  in  the  same  expression  just  as  if  he  had 
pulled  the  string  on  one  of  those  little  stages  where 
all  the  characters  walk  in  jerks  by  means  of  ma- 
chinery. 

"But  no  law  can  prevent  your  uncle  from  adopting 


122  URSULE   MIROUET 

or  marrying  Ursule, "  he  resumed.  "As  for  adop- 
tion it  could  be  contested  and  1  think  you  would 
gain  your  cause;  the  royal  courts  do  not  trifle  on 
the  subject  of  adoption,  and  you  would  be  heard  at 
the  inquiry.  It  is  all  very  well  the  doctor  wearing 
the  ribbon  of  Saint-Michel,  being  an  officer  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor  and  former  physician  to  the  Ex- 
Emperor,  he  will  die.  But,  if  you  are  forewarned 
in  case  of  adoption,  how  would  you  know  of  the 
marriage?  The  old  man  is  sly  enough  to  go  and 
marry  in  Paris  after  a  year's  residence,  and  requite 
his  intended,  in  the  marriage  settlements,  by  a 
dowry  of  a  million.  Therefore  the  only  act  that  can 
endanger  your  inheritance  is  the  marriage  of  the 
little  one  and  your  uncle." 

Here  the  notary  paused. 

"There  is  yet  another  danger,"  said  Goupil 
again,  with  a  knowing  look,  "that  of  a  will  made  to 
a  third,  old  Bongrand,  for  instance,  who  might  hold 
a  legacy  trust  for  Mademoiselle  Ursule  Mirouet. " 

"If  you  worry  your  uncle,"  resumed  Dionis,  cut- 
ting short  his  head  clerk,  "and  if  you  are  not  kind 
to  Ursule,  you  will  drive  him  either  into  marriage, 
or  into  the  legacy  trust  of  which  Goupil  has  spoken; 
but  I  do  not  believe  him  capable  of  resorting  to  a 
legacy  trust,  a  dangerous  means.  As  to  marriage, 
it  is  easy  to  prevent  that.  Desire  only  has  to  pay 
her  the  least  attention  and  she  would  always  prefer 
a  charming  young  man,  the  cock  of  Nemours,  to  an 
old  man." 

"Mother,"  whispered  the   postmaster's   son   to 


URSULE  MIROUET  1 23 

Zelie,  as  much  allured  by  the  sum  as  by  Ursule's 
beauty,  "if  I  were  to  marry  her,  we  should  have  all. " 

"Are  you  mad?  You  who  will  one  day  have  an 
income  of  fifty  thousand  francs  and  who  are  to  be- 
come a  deputy !  As  long  as  I  am  alive  you  shall  not 
be  ruined  by  an  idiotic  marriage.  Seven  hundred 
thousand  francs? — a  fine  thing!  The  mayor's  only 
daughter  will  have  fifty  thousand  francs  income, 
and  has  already  been  proposed  to  me — " 

This  answer,  the  first  time  his  mother  had  ever 
spoken  harshly  to  him,  extinguished  any  hope  that 
Desire  might  have  had  of  marrying  the  lovely 
Ursule,  for  his  father  and  he  would  never  be  able  to 
prevail  against  the  determination  written  in  Zelie's 
terrible  blue  eyes. 

"Eh!  but  see  here,  Monsieur  Dionis,"  cried  Cre- 
miere,  nudged  by  his  wife,  "if  the  old  man  took  the 
thing  seriously  and  married  his  ward  to  Desire 
whilst  giving  her  the  reversion  to  all  his  fortune, 
good-bye  to  the  inheritance !  And  if  he  only  lives 
another  five  years  our  uncle  will  have  pretty  well  a 
million." 

"Never,"  cried  Zelie,  "in  my  lifetime  shall 
Desire  marry  the  daughter  of  a  bastard,  a  charity- 
girl,  picked  up  in  a  market-place !  Bless  me !  my 
son  is  to  represent  the  Minorets  at  his  uncle's 
death,  and  the  Minorets  can  boast  of  five  hundred 
years  of  good  citizens.  It  is  quite  as  good  as  the 
nobility.  Make  yourselves  easy  about  that;  Desire 
will  marry  when  we  know  what  he  can  become  in 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies." 


124  URSULE  MIROUET 

This  haughty  declaration  was  seconded  by  Goupil, 
who.  said : 

"Desire,  endowed  with  an  income  of  twenty -four 
thousand  francs,  will  become  either  president  of  the 
royal  Courts  or  attorney-general,  which  leads  to  the 
peerage;  and  a  foolish  marriage  would  do  for  him." 

The  heirs  then  all  talked  to  one  another;  but 
held  their  peace  at  Minoret's  thump  on  the  table  to 
enable  the  notary  to  continue  speaking. 

"Your  uncle  is  an  honest,  worthy  man,"  resumed 
Dionis.  "He  believes  himself  to  be  immortal; 
and  like  all  intelligent  people,  he  will  allow  death 
to  overtake  him  without  having  made  a  will.  My 
opinion  is  therefore,  that  at  present  he  should  be 
urged  to  invest  his  capital  in  such  a  way  as  to  render 
your  dispossession  difficult,  and  the  chance  has  oc- 
curred. Young  Portenduere  is  imprisoned  at  Sainte- 
Pelagie  for  debts  of  a  hundred  and  odd  thousand 
francs.  His  aged  mother  knows  he  is  in  prison,  she 
cries  like  a  Magdalen  and  is  expecting  the  Abbe 
Chaperon  to  dinner,  doubtless  in  order  to  discuss 
this  disaster  with  him.  Well,  to-night  I  will  go 
and  persuade  your  uncle  to  sell  his  stock  of  five  per 
cent  consols,  which  are  at  one  hundred  and  eighteen, 
and  lend  Madame  de  Portenduere,  on  her  Bordieres 
farm  and  on  her  house,  the  sum  necessary  to  clear 
the  prodigal  child.  I  shall  be  in  my  character  as 
notary  in  speaking  for  this  little  fool  of  a  Porten- 
duere, and  it  is  very  natural  that  I  should  wish  to 
make  him  re-invest  his  stock;  I  gain  the  deeds,  the 
sale  and  commission  on  it.  If  I  can  become  his 


URSULE  MIROUET  125 

adviser,  I  will  propose  other  investments  in  land  for 
the  surplus  of  the  capital,  and  I  have  some  excellent 
ones  in  my  office.  Once  his  fortune  is  placed  in 
landed  estates  or  in  trust  mortgages  in  the  country, 
it  will  not  easily  fly  away.  One  can  always  cause 
difficulties  to  arise  between  the  wish  to  realize  and 
the  realization." 

The  heirs,  struck  by  the  truth  of  this  argument, 
much  more  skilful  than  that  of  Monsieur  Josse,  mur- 
mured approvingly. 

"You  must  all  act  together,"  said  the  notary  in 
conclusion,  "so  as  to  keep  your  uncle  in  Nemours, 
to  which  he  is  accustomed,  and  where  you  can 
watch  him.  By  providing  a  lover  for  the  little  one, 
you  prevent  the  marriage — " 

"But  suppose  the  marriage  took  place?"  said 
Goupil,  seized  with  an  ambitious  idea. 

"Even  that  would  not  be  so  bad,  for  the  loss 
would  be  enumerated,  and  one  would  know  what 
the  old  man  wishes  to  give  her,"  replied  the  notary. 
"But  if  you  let  Desire  loose  upon  her,  he  can 
dawdle  on  with  the  little  one  until  the  old  man's 
death.  Marriages  are  made  and  unmade." 

"The  shortest  way,"  said  Goupil,  "if  the  doctor 
is  still  going  to  live  any  length  of  time,  would  be  to 
marry  her  to  some  good  fellow,  who  would  free  you 
of  her  by  settling  with  her  at  Sens,  Montargis  or 
Orleans,  with  a  hundred  thousand  francs." 

Dionis,  Massin,Zelie  and  Goupil,  the  only  clever 
heads  in  this  assembly,  exchanged  four  glances  full 
of  ideas. 


126  URSULE  MIROUET 

"That  would  be  the  worm  within  the  pear," 
whispered  Zelie  to  Massin. 

"Why  did  they  let  him  come?"  replied  the  clerk. 

"That  would  suit  you  very  nicely,"  cried  Desire 
to  Goupil,  "but  could  you  ever  keep  yourself  clean 
enough  to  please  the  old  man  and  his  ward?" 

"You  are  not  rubbing  your  stomach  with  a 
basket,"  said  the  postmaster  who  finally  grasped 
Goupil's  idea. 

This  coarse  joke  was  a  prodigious  success.  The 
head  clerk  scrutinized  the  laughers  with  such  a 
terrible  look,  that  silence  was  immediately  restored. 

"Nowadays,"  whispered  Zelie  to  Massin, 
"notaries  think  only  of  their  own  interests;  and 
suppose  Dionis,  in  order  to  profit,  went  over  to 
Ursule's  side?" 

"I  am  sure  of  him,"  replied  the  clerk,  giving  his 
cousin  a  look  out  of  his  malicious  little  eyes. 

He  was  going  to  add,  "I  know  enough  to  ruin 
him!"  but  checked  himself. 

"I  am  entirely  of  Dionis's  opinion,"  said  he, 
aloud. 

"And  I  also,"  cried  Zelie,  who  nevertheless 
suspected  a  collusion  of  interest  between  the  notary 
and  the  clerk. 

"My  wife  has  voted,"  said  the  postmaster,  suck- 
ing down  a  glass  of  brandy,  although  his  face  was 
already  violet-colored  from  digesting  the  breakfast 
and  from  a  remarkable  absorption  of  liquor. 

"That's  all  right,"  said  the  tax-gatherer. 

"Then  shall  I  go  after  dinner?"  rejoined  Dionis. 


URSULE  MIROUET  127 

"If  Monsieur  Dionis  is  right, "said  Madame  Cre- 
miere  to  Madame  Massin,  "we  must  visit  our  uncle 
in  the  evening  as  before,  every  Sunday,  and  do  all 
that  Monsieur  Dionis  has  just  told  us." 

"Yes,  to  be  received  as  we  used  to  be!"  cried 
Zelie.  "After  all,  we  have  a  good  income  of  more 
than  forty  thousand  francs,  and  he  has  refused  all 
our  invitations;  we  are  quite  as  good  as  he  is. 
Even  though  I  do  not  know  how  to  make  laws,  I 
can  steer  my  own  bark." 

"As  I  am  far  from  having  forty  thousand  francs 
a  year,"  said  Madame  Massin,  rather  piqued,  "I  do 
not  care  to  lose  ten  thousand!" 

"We  are  his  nieces,  we  will  take  care  of  him; 
we  will  keep  our  eyes  open,"  said  Madame  Cre- 
miere,  "and  some  day,  cousin,  you  will  be  grateful 
to  us." 

"Treat  Ursule  well,  the  old  man  De  Jordy  left 
her  his  savings,"  said  the  notary,  lifting  his  fore- 
finger to  his  lips. 

"I  will  be  on  my  P's  and  Q's,"  cried  Desire. 

"You  were  as  clever  as  Desroches,  the  cleverest 
of  all  the  Paris  solicitors,"  said  Goupil  to  his  master 
as  they  left  the  post-house. 

"And  they  discuss  our  fees!"  replied  the  notary, 
smiling  bitterly. 

The  heirs,  who  were  seeing  Dionis  and  his  head 
clerk  home,  all  met,  their  faces  rather  flushed  by  the 
breakfast,  at  the  end  of  vespers.  According  to  the 
notary's  anticipations,  the  Abbe  Chaperon  was 
giving  his  arm  to  old  Madame  de  Portenduere. 


128  URSULE  MIROUET 

"She  has  dragged  him  to  vespers,"  cried  Madame 
Massin,  drawing  Madame  Cremiere's  attention  to 
Ursule  and  her  godfather  as  they  were  leaving  the 
church. 

"Let  us  go  and  speak  to  him,"  said  Madame  Cre- 
miere,  advancing  toward  the  old  man. 

The  change  that  the  conference  had  wrought  in 
all  these  faces  surprised  Doctor  Minoret  He  won- 
dered what  was  the  cause  of  this  feigned  friend- 
liness, and,  out  of  curiosity,  favored  the  meeting  of 
Ursule  and  the  two  women,  eager  to  greet  her  with 
exaggerated  affection  and  forced  smiles. 

"Uncle,  will  you  allow  us  to  come  and  see  you  to- 
night?" said  Madame  Cremiere.  "We  have  some- 
times thought  that  we  worried  you;  but  it  is  such  a 
long  time  since  our  children  paid  you  their  respects, 
and  now  our  daughters  are  of  an  age  to  make  ac- 
quaintance with  our  dear  Ursule." 

"Ursule  is  worthy  of  her  name,"  replied  the 
doctor,  "she  is  very  wild." 

"Let  us  tame  her,"  said  Madame  Massin.  "And 
then,  see  here,  uncle,"  added  this  good  housewife, 
trying  to  hide  her  projects  under  a  calculation  of 
economy,  "we  were  told  that  your  dear  godchild 
shows  such  wonderful  talent  on  the  piano-forte,  that 
we  should  be  delighted  to  hear  her.  Madame  Cre- 
miere and  I  are  rather  inclined  to  have  her  master 
for  our  little  ones;  for,  if  he  had  seven  or  eight 
pupils,  he  might  fix  his  charges  within  reach  of  our 
fortunes — " 

"Willingly,"  said  the  old  man,  "and  that  would 


URSULE  MIROUET  I2Q 

be  all  the  better  as  I  also  wish  to  give  Ursule  a  sing- 
ing-master." 

"Well  then,  till  to-night,  uncle;  we  will  come 
with  your  great-nephew  Desire,  who  is  now  a  law- 
yer." 

"Till  to-night,"  replied  Minoret,  who  wanted  to 
fathom  these  shallow  minds. 

The  two  nieces  squeezed  Ursule's  hand,  saying  to 
her  with  pretended  graciousness : 

"Au  revoir." 

"Oh!  godfather,  then  you  see  into  my  heart?" 
cried  Ursule,  giving  the  old  man  a  look  full  of  grati- 
tude. 

"You  have  a  voice,"  he  said.  "And  I  also 
want  you  to  have  drawing  and  Italian  masters.  A 
woman,"  resumed  the  doctor,  looking  at  Ursule  as 
he  was  opening  the  gate  of  his  house,  "ought  to  be 
brought  up  in  such  a  way  as  to  feel  herself  equal  to 
any  position  in  which  her  marriage  may  place  her." 

Ursule  grew  as  red  as  a  cherry;  her  guardian 
seemed  to  be  thinking  of  the  same  person  as  she 
was.  Feeling  herself  on  the  point  of  confessing  the 
involuntary  partiality  which  drove  her  to  thinking 
of  Savinien  and  connecting  all  her  longing  for  per- 
fection with  him,  she  went  and  sat  down  under  the 
clump  of  climbing  plants,  where,  from  afar,  she 
stood  out  like  a  blue  and  white  flower. 

"You  can  quite  see,  godfather,   how  kind  your 
nieces  are  to  me;  they  were  nice,"  she  said,  seeing 
him  coming,  and  to  throw  him  off  the  scent  of  the 
thoughts  which  had  made  her  pensive. 
9 


130  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Poor  little  thing!"  cried  the  old  man. 

He  patted  Ursule's  hand  as  she  laid  it  on  his  arm, 
and  led  her  along  the  terrace  beside  the  river,  where 
no  one  could  overhear  them. 

"Why  do  you  say,  'Poor  little  thing?'  " 

"Do  you  not  see  that  they  are  afraid  of  you  ?" 

"But  why?" 

"All  my  heirs  are  just  now  very  uneasy  about 
my  conversion;  they  have  doubtless  attributed  it  to 
the  influence  you  exercise  over  me,  and  imagine 
that  I  shall  disappoint  them  of  my  inheritance  in 
order  to  enrich  you." 

"But  that  would  not  be?"  said  Ursule  naively, 
looking  at  her  godfather. 

"Oh!  heavenly  consolation  of  my  declining 
days!"  said  the  old  man,  lifting  up  his  ward  and 
kissing  her  on  both  cheeks.  "It  is  indeed  for  her 
and  not  for  myself !  O  God !  that  I  prayed  Thee  a 
moment  ago  to  let  me  live  until  the  day  upon  which 
I  shall  have  entrusted  her  to  some  good  being  who 
is  worthy  of  her !  You  will  see,  my  little  angel, 
the  farce  that  the  Minorets,  Cremieres  and  Massins 
will  come  and  play  here.  You  want  to  beautify  and 
prolong  my  life,  you  do!  Whereas  they  only  think 
of  my  death — " 

"God  preserve  us  from  hating;  but, if  that  is  so, 
— oh!  I  do  indeed  despise  them!"  said  Ursule. 

"Dinner!"  cried  La  Bougival  from  the  top  of  the 
steps,  which,  on  the  garden  side,  were  at  the  end 
of  the  passage. 


At  dessert,  Ursule  and  her  guardian  were  in  the 
pretty  dining-room  decorated  with  Chinese  paint- 
ings in  lacquer,  the  ruin  of  Levrault-Levrault,  when 
the  justice  of  the  peace  called.  The  doctor  offered 
him,  as  a  great  mark  of  intimacy,  a  cup  of  his 
Mocha  coffee  mixed  with  Bourbon  and  Martinique 
coffee,  burnt,  ground  and  made  by  himself  in  a  sil- 
ver coffee-pot  a  la  Chaptal. 

"Well!"  said  Bongrand,  lifting  his  spectacles  and 
looking  slyly  at  the  old  man,  "the  whole  town  is 
astir!  your  appearance  in  church  has  upset  your 
relations!  You  are  leaving  your  fortune  to  the 
priests  and  the  poor !  You  have  stirred  them  up, 
and  they  are  fidgeting,  ah!  I  saw  their  first  out- 
break in  the  square,  they  were  as  busy  as  ants  who 
had  been  robbed  of  their  eggs." 

"What  did  I  tell  you,  Ursule?"  cried  the  old  man. 
"At  the  risk  of  paining  you,  my  child,  ought  I  not 
to  teach  you  to  know  the  world,  and  to  be  on  your 
guard  against  undeserved  ill-will?" 

"I  should  like  to  say  a  word  to  you  on  this  sub- 
ject," rejoined  Bongrand,  seizing  this  opportunity 
of  speaking  to  his  old  friend  about  Ursule's  future. 

The  doctor  put  a  black  velvet  cap  over  his  white 
head,  the  justice  of  the  peace  kept  on  his  hat  to 
protect  himself  from  the  cold,  and  both  walked  up 
(131) 


132  URSULE  MIROUET 

and  down  the  terrace  discussing  the  means  of  secur- 
ing for  Ursule  what  her  godfather  wanted  to  give 
her.  The  justice  of  the  peace  knew  Dionis's  opinion 
upon  the  invalidity  of  any  will  made  by  the  doctor 
in  Ursule's  favor,  for  Nemours  was  too  much  occu- 
pied about  the  Minoret  inheritance  for  this  question 
not  to  have  been  discussed  between  the  lawyers  of 
the  town.  Bongrand  had  decided  that  Ursule 
Mirouet  was  a  stranger  with  regard  to  Doctor  Min- 
oret, but  he  felt  that  the  spirit  of  the  law  re- 
pulsed any  illegitimate  offshoots  from  the  family. 
The  authors  of  the  Code  had  only  foreseen  the 
weakness  of  fathers  and  mothers  for  the  natural 
children,  without  imagining  that  the  uncles  or  the 
aunts  might  espouse  the  tenderness  of  the  natural 
child  in  favor  of  its  descendants.  There  was  evi- 
dently something  wanting  in  the  law. 

"In  any  other  country,"  he  said  to  the  doctor  at 
the  conclusion  of  his  explanation  of  the  state  of  the 
law  that  Goupil,  Dionis,  and  Desire  had  just  ex- 
plained to  the  heirs, "Ursule  would  have  nothing  to 
fear ;  she  is  a  legitimate  daughter,  and  her  father's 
incapacity  ought  only  to  operate  in  regard  to  the 
inheritance  of  Valentin-Mirouet,  your  father-in-law; 
but,  in  France,  the  magistracy  is  unfortunately  very 
ingenious  and  consistent,  it  seeks  the  spirit  of  the 
law.  The  lawyers  would  talk  morality  and  prove 
that  the  void  in  the  Code  arose  from  the  simplicity 
of  the  legislators  who  had  not  foreseen  the  case,  but 
who  had  none  the  less  established  a  principle.  The 
suit  would  be  long  and  expensive.  With  Zelie, 


URSULE  MIROUET  133 

they  would  go  as  far  as  the  Court  of  Appeal,  and  I 
would  not  be  sure  of  being  still  alive  when  this  suit 
came  on." 

"The  best  of  lawsuits  is  no  longer  good  for  any- 
thing," cried  the  doctor,  "I  also  see  the  memoran- 
dum on  this  question :  To  what  extent  should  the 
incapacity  be  carried  which,  in  the  matter  of  inheritance, 
strikes  natural  children  ?  and  a  good  lawyer's  pride 
consists  in  winning  desperate  cases." 

"Faith !"  said  Bongrand,  "I  would  not  dare  under- 
take to  affirm  that  the  magistrates  would  not  extend 
the  interpretation  of  the  law  so  as  to  extend  the 
protection  granted  to  marriage,  the  eternal  founda- 
tion of  all  society." 

Without  declaring  his  intentions,  the  old  man 
rejected  the  legacy  trust  But,  as  to  the  question 
of  a  marriage  that  Bongrand  suggested  to  him  as  a 
means  of  securing  his  fortune  for  Ursule : 

"Poor  little  girl !"  cried  the  doctor,  "I  am  capable 
of  living  another  fifteen  years,  what  would  become 
of  her?" 

"Well  then,  what  do  you  think  of  doing?"  said 
Bongrand. 

"We  will  think  it  over — I  will  see,"  replied  the 
old  doctor,  evidently  at  a  loss  for  an  answer. 

At  that  moment,  Ursule  came  to  inform  the  two 
friends  that  Dionis  wished  to  speak  to  the  doctor. 

"Dionis  already!"  cried  Minoret,  looking  at  the 
justice  of  the  peace.  "Yes,"  he  replied  to  Ursule, 
"let  him  come  in." 

"I'll  wager  my  spectacles  against  a  match,  that 


134  URSULE  MIROUET 

he  is  the  screen  of  your  heirs ;  they  have  all  been 
breakfasting  at  the  post-house  with  Dionis,  they 
must  have  planned  something." 

The  notary,  conducted  by  Ursule,  came  to  the 
bottom  of  the  garden.  After  the  greetings  and  sev- 
eral trifling  sentences,  Dionis  was  granted  a  mo- 
ment's private  hearing.  Ursule  and  Bongrand 
retired  to  the  salon. 

"We  will  think  it  over!  I  will  see!"  said  Bon- 
grand  to  himself,  repeating  the  doctor's  last  words, 
"that  is  what  clever  people  always  say;  death 
overtakes  them  and  they  leave  the  beings  who  are 
dear  to  them, in  distress." 

The  mistrust  that  highly  gifted  men  inspire  in 
business  men  is  extraordinary;  they  will  not  trust 
them  in  the  least  while  recognizing  them  in  the 
greatest  affairs.  But  perhaps  this  mistrust  is  an  en- 
comium. Seeing  them  dwelling  at  the  summit  of 
human  affairs,  business  people  do  not  believe  supe- 
rior men  capable  of  descending  to  the  infinite  little- 
nesses of  the  details  which,  like  the  interests  in 
finance  and  the  microscopies  in  natural  science,  end 
by  equalizing  capital  and  forming  worlds.  Mistaken 
fallacy!  A  man  of  good  feeling  and  a  man  of  genius 
see  everything.  Bongrand,  nettled  at  the  doctor's 
silence,  but  moved  doubtless  through  interest  in 
Ursule  and  believing  her  to  be  imperiled,  resolved 
to  defend  her  against  the  heirs.  He  was  frantic  at 
the  thought  of  knowing  nothing  of  the  old  man's 
conversation  with  Dionis. 

"However  pure  Ursule   may  be,"   he   thought, 


URSULE  MIROUET  135 

whilst  examining  her,  "there  is  a  point  at  which 
young  girls  usually  take  the  law  and  morality  upon 
themselves.  Let  us  try! — The  Minoret-Levraults," 
he  said  to  Ursule,  securing  his  spectacles,  "are 
likely  to  ask  your  hand  in  marriage  for  their  son." 

The  poor  little  thing  turned  pale;  she  was  too 
well  brought  up,  and  had  too  saintly  a  delicacy  to 
go  and  listen  to  what  was  being  said  by  Dionis  and 
her  uncle;  but,  after  some  brief  inward  deliberation, 
she  thought  she  might  show  herself,  reflecting  that 
if  she  were  not  wanted  her  godfather  would  let  her 
feel  it  The  outer  blinds  of  the  French  window  of 
the  doctor's  study  in  the  Chinese  pavilion  were 
open.  Ursule  contrived  an  excuse  for  going  to  shut 
them  up  herself.  She  apologized  for  leaving  the 
justice  of  the  peace  alone  in  the  salon,  and  he  said 
to  her,  smiling: 

"Doit,  doit" 

Ursule  gained  the  flight  of  steps  leading  down 
from  the  Chinese  pavilion  to  the  garden,  and  stood 
there  several  minutes,  slowly  arranging  the  blinds 
and  looking  at  the  setting  sun.  She  then  heard  the 
following  reply  made  by  the  doctor,  who  was  coming 
towards  the  Chinese  pavilion: 

"My  heirs  would  be  delighted  to  see  me  investing 
in  landed  property  and  mortgages;  they  fancy  that 
my  fortune  would  be  much  more  secure ;  I  can  guess 
all  they  say  to  each  other,  and  perhaps  you  come 
from  them — Know,  my  dear  sir,  that  my  arrange- 
ments are  irrevocable.  My  heirs  will  have  the  capi- 
tal of  the  fortune  that  1  brought  here,  let  them  take 


136  URSULE  MIROUET 

this  as  a  warning  and  leave  me  in  peace.  If  any  one 
of  them  were  to  meddle  in  any  way  with  what  I  con- 
sider I  ought  to  do  for  this  child" — he  pointed  to  his 
godchild — "I  would  return  from  the  next  world  to 
torment  him !  And  so  Monsieur  Savinien  de  Porten- 
duere  may  indeed  remain  in  prison  if  anyone 
reckons  upon  me  to  get  him  out,"  added  the  doctor. 
"I  will  never  sell  my  stock." 

Upon  hearing  this  last  fragment  of  the  sentence, 
Ursule  experienced  the  first  and  only  sorrow  which 
had  ever  overtaken  her;  she  leant  her  forehead 
against  the  blind  and  clung  to  it  for  support 

"Mon  Dieu!  what  is  the  matter  with  her?"  cried 
the  old  doctor,  "she  is  quite  white !  Such  a  disturb- 
ance after  dinner  might  kill  her!" 

He  stretched  out  his  arm  to  catch  Ursule,  who  fell 
almost  fainting. 

"Good-bye,  sir,  leave  me,"  he  said  to  the  notary. 

He  carried  his  goddaughter  to  an  immense  arm- 
chair of  the  time  of  Louis  XV.,  which  was  in  his 
study,  seized  a  bottle  of  ether  from  his  dispensary 
and  made  her  inhale  it 

"Take  my  place,  my  friend,"  he  said  to  the  ter- 
rified Bongrand,  "I  want  to  be  alone  with  her." 

The  justice  of  the  peace  escorted  the  notary  as 
far  as  the  gate,  asking  him  without  any  show  of 
eagerness : 

"What  happened  to  Ursule?" 

"I  do  not  know,"  replied  Monsieur  Dionis,  "she 
was  on  the  steps  listening  to  us;  and,  when  her 
uncle  refused  to  lend  the  sum  necessary  to  young 


URSULE  MIROUET  137 

Portenduere,  who  is  in  prison  for  debt,  for  he  did 
not  have,  like  Monsieur  du  Rouvre,  a  Monsieur  Bon- 
grand  to  defend  him,  she  grew  pale,  staggered — 
Could  she  be  in  love  with  him?  Might  there  be 
between  them — ?" 

"At  fifteen?"  rejoined  Bongrand,  interrupting 
Dionis. 

"She  was  born  in  February,  1814,  she  will  be  six- 
teen years  old  in  four  months." 

"She  has  never  seen  her  neighbor,"  replied  the 
justice  of  the  peace.     "No,  it  was  an  attack." 
"A  heart  attack,"  answered  the  notary. 
The  notary  was  delighted  enough  at  this  discov- 
ery, which  might  prevent  the  dreaded  marriage  in 
extremis  with  which  the  doctor  could  balk  his  heirs, 
whilst  Bongrand  saw  his  castles  in  the  air  over- 
thrown ;  for  a  long  time,  he  had  been  thinking  of 
marrying  his  son  to  Ursule. 

"If  the  poor  child  were  in  love  with  this  fellow, 
it  would  be  a  misfortune  for  her ;  Madame  de  Por- 
tenduere is  a  Breton  and  biased  as  to  her  nobility," 
returned  the  justice  of  the  peace  after  a  pause. 

"Happily — for  the  honor  of  the  Portendu£res, " 
replied  the  notary,  who  was  near  betraying  himself. 
Let  us  do  the  good  honest  justice  of  the  peace 
the  justice  of  saying  that  whilst  coming  from  the 
gate  to  the  salon  he  abandoned,  not  without  pity 
for  his  son,  the  hope  he  had  fostered  of  one  day 
calling  Ursule  his  daughter.  He  reckoned  on  giv- 
ing his  son  six  thousand  francs  income  upon  the 
day  when  he  should  be  appointed  deputy;  and,  if 


138  URSULE  MIROUET 

the  doctor  would  have  given  Ursule  a  dowry  of  one 
hundred  thousand  francs,  these  two  young  people 
ought  to  have  made  the  best  of  households;  his 
Eugene  was  a  loyal  and  charming  fellow.  Perhaps 
he  had  boasted  too  much  about  this  Eugene,  and 
perhaps  old  Minoret's  distrust  came  from  that 

"I  shall  fall  back  upon  the  mayor's  daughter," 
thought  Bongrand,  "but  Ursule  without  a  dowry  is 
worth  more  than  Mademoiselle  Levrault-Cremiere 
with  her  million.  Now,  we  must  manoeuvre  so  as 
to  bring  about  Ursule's  marriage  with  this  young 
Portenduere,  if  however,  she  loves  him." 

After  having  shut  the  door  on  the  side  of  the 
library  and  the  garden  door,  the  doctor  led  his  ward 
to  the  window  looking  out  upon  the  water's  edge. 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you,  cruel  child?"  he 
said  to  her,  "your  life  is  my  life.  What  would  be- 
come of  me  without  your  smile?" 

"Savinien  in  prison!"  she  replied. 

After  these  words,  a  torrent  of  tears  fell  from  her 
eyes  and  the  sobs  came. 

"She  is  saved!"  thought  the  old  man,  who  was 
feeling  her  pulse  with  a  father's  anxiety.  "Alas! 
she  has  all  my  poor  wife's  sensitiveness,"  he  said  to 
himself  whilst  going  to  fetch  a  stethoscope  which  he 
placed  on  Ursule's  heart  while  applying  his  ear  to  it. 

"Come,  all  goes  well,"  he  said  to  himself. — "I 
did  not  know,  my  dearest,  that  you  already  loved 
him  so  much,"  he  resumed,  looking  at  her.  "But 
think  of  me  as  if  it  were  yourself,  and  tell  me  all 
that  has  passed  between  you." 


URSULE  MIROUET  139 

"I  do  not  love  him,  godfather,  we  have  never 
spoken  to  each  other,"  she  replied,  sobbing.  "But 
to  hear  that  this  poor  young  man  is  in  prison,  and 
to  know  that  you  harshly  refuse  to  get  him  out,  you 
who  are  so  good!" 

"Ursule,  my  good  little  angel,  if  you  do  not  love 
him,  why  do  you  put  a  red  dot  before  the  day  of 
Saint-Savinien  as  well  as  before  the  day  of  Saint- 
Denis?  Come  now,  tell  me  the  minutest  incidents 
of  this  love  affair." 

Ursule  reddened,  restrained  her  tears,  and  there 
was  a  moment's  silence  between  her  and  her  uncle. 

"Are  you  afraid  of  your  father,  your  friend,  your 
mother,  your  physician,  your  godfather,  whose 
heart  has  for  several  days  been  made  more  tender 
than  it  was  before — ?" 

"Well  then,  dear  godfather,"  she  rejoined,  "I 
will  open  my  soul  to  you.  In  the  month  of  May, 
Monsieur  Savinien  came  to  see  his  mother.  Up  till 
that  journey,  I  had  never  paid  him  the  least  atten- 
tion. When  he  left  to  live  in  Paris,  I  was  a  child, 
and  I  swear  to  you,  I  could  see  no  difference  between 
a  young  man  and  such  as  you,  unless  it  were  that  I 
loved  you,  without  dreaming  that  I  could  possibly 
love  anybody  better.  Monsieur  Savinien  arrived  by 
the  mail-coach  on  the  eve  of  his  mother's  birthday, 
without  our  knowledge.  At  seven  in  the  morning, 
after  having  said  my  prayers,  whilst  opening  the 
window  to  air  my  room,  I  saw  the  windows  of  Mon- 
sieur Savinien's  room  open,  and  Monsieur  Savinien 
in  his  dressing-gown,  busy  shaving,  and  putting  a 


140  URSULE  MIROUET 

grace  into  his  movements — well,  I  thought  him 
handsome.  He  combed  his  black  moustache,  the 
point  under  his  chin,  and  I  saw  his  white,  round 
neck — Must  I  tell  you  everything? — I  noticed  that 
this  fresh  neck,  this  face  and  this  beautiful  black 
hair  were  very  different  from  yours,  when  I  used  to 
see  you  shaving.  A  surging  vapor,  from  where  I 
do  not  know,  rose  in  my  heart,  in  my  throat,  in  my 
head,  and  so  violently  that  I  sat  down.  I  could  not 
stand  upright,  I  trembled.  But  I  so  much  wanted 
to  see  him,  that  I  stood  on  tiptoe ;  he  then  saw  me, 
and,  in  fun,  sent  me  a  kiss  with  the  tips  of  his 
fingers,  and — " 

"And—?" 

"And,"  she  resumed,  "I  hid  myself,  as  much 
ashamed  as  I  was  happy,  without  being  able  to  ac- 
count for  my  shame  in  this  happiness.  This  move- 
ment, which  intoxicated  my  soul  whilst  causing  I 
know  not  what  power,  is  renewed  every  time  that 
I  see  this  young  face  again  in  my  mind's  eye.  At 
last  I  used  to  delight  in  recognizing  this  emotion, 
however  violent  it  might  be.  Whilst  going  to  mass, 
an  unconquerable  force  urged  me  to  look  at  Monsieur 
Savinien  giving  his  arm  to  his  mother ;  his  bearing, 
his  clothes,  everything,  even  to  the  sound  of  his 
boots  on  the  pavement,  seemed  to  me  desirable. 
The  least  thing  about  him,  his  hand,  so  delicately 
gloved,  influenced  me  like  a  spell.  Nevertheless,  I 
had  the  strength  not  to  think  of  him  during  mass. 
At  the  end  of  the  service,  I  remained  in  the  church 
in  such  a  way  as  to  allow  Madame  de  Portenduere 


URSULE  MIROUET  141 

to  leave  first,  and  thus  to  walk  after  him.  I  could 
not  convey  to  you  how  much  these  little  arrange- 
ments interested  me.  Upon  coming  in,  when  I 
turned  round  to  shut  the  gate — " 

"And  La  Bougival?"  said  the  doctor. 

"Oh!  I  let  her  go  to  her  kitchen,"  said  Ursule 
naively.  "So  I  could  then  of  course  see  Monsieur 
Savinien  standing  firmly  looking  at  me.  Oh !  god- 
father, I  felt  so  proud  at  fancying  I  could  see  a  sort 
of  surprise  and  admiration  in  his  eyes,  that  I  do  not 
know  what  I  would  not  have  done  to  afford  him  the 
opportunity  of  looking  at  me.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
I  ought  not  in  future  to  do  anything  but  please  him. 
His  glance  is  now  the  sweetest  reward  for  my  good 
actions.  From  that  moment,  I  think  of  him  cease- 
lessly and  in  spite  of  myself.  Monsieur  Savinien 
left  again  that  evening,  I  have  not  seen  him  since, 
the  Rue  des  Bourgeois  has  seemed  empty  to  me,  and 
he  has,  as  it  were,  carried  away  my  heart  with  him, 
without  knowing  it" 

"Is  that  all?"  said  the  doctor. 

"All,  godfather,"  she  said,  with  a  sigh  in  which 
the  regret  at  not  having  more  to  tell  was  stifled 
under  the  sorrow  of  the  moment 

"My  dear  little  one,"  said  the  doctor,  seating 
Ursule  on  his  knees,  "you  will  soon  be  sixteen,  and 
your  life  as  a  woman  will  begin.  You  are  between 
your  blessed  childhood,  which  ceases,  and  the  agi- 
tations of  love,  which  will  make  your  existence  a 
stormy  one,  for  you  have  the  nervous  system  be- 
longing to  an  exquisite  sensitiveness.  What  has 


142  URSULE  MIROUET 

come  to  you,  is  love,  my  child,"  said  the  old  man, 
with  an  expression  of  profound  sadness,  "it  is  love 
in  its  sacred  simplicity,  love  as  it  should  be;  in- 
voluntary, swift,  come  as  a  thief  who  takes  all — 
yes,  all!  And  I  expected  it.  I  have  studied 
women  well,  and  know  that,  if  love  only  masters 
most  of  them  after  many  proofs  and  miracles  of 
affection,  if  those  women  never  break  their  silence 
and  only  yield  when  conquered,  there  are  others 
who,  under  the  influence  of  a  sympathy  which  is 
accounted  for  nowadays  by  magnetic  fluids,  are 
overcome  in  an  instant  I  can  tell  you  this  to-day ; 
as  soon  as  I  saw  the  charming  woman  who  bore 
your  name,  I  felt  that  I  should  love  her  solely  and 
faithfully,  without  knowing  if  our  characters  or  our 
persons  would  agree.  Has  love  got  second  sight? 
What  answer  can  one  give,  after  having  seen  so 
many  unions  celebrated  under  the  auspices  of  so 
heavenly  a  contract,  broken  later  on,  engendering 
almost  eternal  hatred,  and  positive  repulsion  ?  The 
senses  can,  so  to  speak,  mutually  correspond  and  the 
ideas  be  at  variance:  and  perhaps  some  people  live 
more  through  ideas  than  through  the  feelings.  On 
the  other  hand,  characters  often  agree  and  the  per- 
sons dislike  each  other.  These  two  utterly  differ- 
ent phenomena,  which  would  account  for  many 
misfortunes,  prove  the  wisdom  of  the  laws  which 
allow  the  parents  the  upper  hand  in  the  marriages 
of  their  children ;  for  a  young  girl  is  often  the  dupe 
of  one  of  these  two  hallucinations.  Therefore  I  do 
not  blame  you.  The  sensations  that  you  experience, 


URSULE  MIROUET  143 

this  movement  of  your  sensibility  which  rushes 
from  its  yet  unknown  centre  over  your  heart  and 
mind,  this  happiness  with  which  you  think  of  Sa- 
vinien,  all  is  natural.  But,  my  adored  child,  as  our 
good  Abbe  Chaperon  has  told  you,  society  demands 
the  sacrifice  of  many  natural  inclinations.  The  des- 
tinies of  men  are  different  from  those  of  women.  I 
was  able  to  choose  Ursule  Mirouet  for  my  wife  and 
go  to  her  telling  her  how  much  I  loved  her;  whilst 
a  young  girl  belies  her  virtues  by  soliciting  the  love 
of  the  man  she  loves:  the  woman  has  not,  like  us, 
the  means  of  pursuing  in  broad  daylight  the  accom- 
plishment of  her  desires.  Besides,  with  her,  with 
you  all,  and  particularly  with  you,  modesty  is  the 
insuperable  barrier  which  guards  the  secrets  of  your 
heart  Your  hesitation  in  confiding  your  first  emo- 
tions to  me  is  enough  to  tell  me  that  you  would  en- 
dure the  most  cruel  tortures  rather  than  confess  to 
Savinien — " 

"Oh!  yes!"  she  said. 

"But,  my  child,  you  ought  to  do  more;  you  ought 
to  repress  the  impulses  of  your  heart,  and  forget 
them." 

"Why?" 

"Because,  my  little  angel,  you  ought  to  love  none 
but  the  man  who  is  to  be  your  husband ;  and,  even 
if  Monsieur  Savinien  de  Portenduere  loved  you — " 

"I  have  not  yet  thought  of  that" 

"Listen  to  me — even  if  he  love  you,  and  his 
mother  were  to  ask  me  for  your  hand,  I  would  not 
consent  to  this  marriage  until  I  had  submitted 


144  URSULE  MIROUET 

Savinien  to  a  long  and  mature  examination.  His 
conduct  has  just  made  him  suspected  by  all  fami- 
lies, and  placed  between  him  and  any  heiress  bar- 
riers which  will  be  overcome  with  difficulty." 

A  divine  smile  dried  Ursule's  tears  and  she  said: 

"In  some  circumstances  misfortune  is  a  good 
thing!" 

The  doctor  could  not  answer  this  simplicity. 

"What  has  he  done,  godfather?"  she  resumed. 

"In  two  years,  my  little  angel,  he  has  contracted 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  francs'  worth  of 
debts  in  Paris!  He  was  foolish  enough  to  allow 
himself  to  be  put  in  Sainte-Pelagie,  a  blunder 
which,  as  times  go,  brings  a  young  man  into  dis- 
repute forever.  A  spendthrift  who  is  capable  of 
plunging  a  poor  mother  into  sorrow  and  want,  would 
kill  his  wife  from  despair  as  your  poor  father  did." 

"Do  you  think  he  could  reform  ?"  she  asked. 

"If  his  mother  pays  for  him,  he  would  be  reduced 
to  beggary,  and  I  know  no  worse  correction  for  a 
nobleman  than  to  be  without  money." 

This  answer  made  Ursule  thoughtful ;  she  dried 
her  tears  and  said  to  her  godfather : 

"If  you  can,  do  save  him,  godfather;  this  service 
would  give  you  the  right  to  advise  him ;  you  would 
remonstrate  with  him — " 

"And,  "said  the  doctor,  imitating  Ursule's  way  of 
speaking,  "he  could  come  here,  the  old  lady  would 
come  here,  we  should  see  them,  and — " 

"I  was  only  thinking  of  him  just  then,"  replied 
Ursule,  blushing. 


URSULE  MIROUET  145 

"Do  not  think  of  him  any  more,  my  poor  child; 
it  is  folly!"  said  the  doctor,  gravely.  "Madame  de 
Portenduere,  a  Kergarouet,  had  she  only  three  hun- 
dred francs  a  year  to  live  on,  would  never  consent 
to  the  marriage  of  the  Vicomte  Savinien  de  Porten- 
duere, grand-nephew  of  the  late  Comte  de  Porten- 
duere, lieutenant-general  of  the  King's  navy  and  son 
of  the  Vicomte  de  Portenduere,  post-captain,  with 
whom?  with  Ursule  Mirouet,  daughter  of  a  band- 
master in  a  regiment,  without  fortune,  and  whose 
father,  alas !  now  is  the  moment  to  tell  you,  was  the 
bastard  of  an  organist,  my  father-in-law." 

"Oh!  godfather,  you  are  right;  we  are  only 
equal  before  God.  1  will  never  think  of  him  again 
but  in  my  prayers!"  she  said  between  the  sobs 
excited  by  this  disclosure.  "Give  him  all  that  you 
destine  for  me.  What  can  a  poor  girl  like  myself 
want? — In  prison,  he!" 

"Present  all  your  sorrows  to  God,  and  perhaps 
He  will  come  to  our  aid." 

Silence  reigned  for  several  moments.  When 
Ursule,  who  had  not  dared  look  at  her  godfather, 
raised  her  eyes  to  his,  her  heart  was  deeply  touched 
at  seeing  the  tears  rolling  down  his  withered  cheeks. 
Old  men's  tears  are  as  alarming  as  children's  are 
natural. 

"Mon  Dieu!  What  is  the  matter?"  she  said, 
throwing  herself  at  his  feet  and  kissing  his  hands. 
"Are  you  not  sure  about  me?" 

"I,  who  long  to  satisfy  all  your  wishes,  am 
obliged  to  cause  you  the  first  great  sorrow  of  your 


146  URSULE  MIROUET 

1  ife !  I  suffer  as  much  as  you  do.  I  never  wept 
except  at  my  children's  and  Ursule's  death — Here, 
I  will  do  anything  you  wish!"  he  cried. 

Through  her  tears,  Ursule  gave  her  godfather  a 
look  that  was  like  a  flash;  she  smiled. 

"Let  us  go  to  the  salon,  and  contrive  to  keep  all 
this  to  yourself,  my  little  one,"  said  the  doctor, 
leaving  his  goddaughter  in  his  study. 

This  father  felt  himself  so  weak  before  this 
divine  smile,  that  he  was  almost  on  the  point  of 
saying  a  word  of  hope  and  so  misleading  his  god- 
daughter. 


At  that  moment,  Madame  de  Portenduere,  alone 
with  the  cure  in  her  cold  little  parlor  on  the  ground 
floor,  had  just  finished  confiding  her  troubles  to  this 
good  priest,  her  only  friend.  In  her  hand  she  held 
the  letters  that  the  Abbe  Chaperon  had  just  re- 
turned to  her  after  having  read  them,  and  which 
had  completed  the  measure  of  her  worries.  Sitting 
in  her  easy-chair  on  one  side  of  the  square  table 
covered  with  the  remains  of  dessert,  the  old  lady 
looked  at  the  cure,  who,  on  the  other  side,  huddled 
in  his  armchair,  was  stroking  his  chin  with  the 
gesture  common  to  theatrical  valets,  mathematicians 
and  priests,  and  which  betrays  some  reflection  over 
a  difficult  problem. 

This  little  parlor,  lighted  by  two  windows  facing 
the  road  and  wainscoted  with  gray  painted  wood- 
work, was  so  damp,  that  the  lower  panels  showed 
the  geometrical  cracks  of  rotten  wood  when  it  is  no 
longer  preserved  but  by  paint.  The  tiled  floor,  red 
and  rubbed  by  the  old  lady's  only  servant,  required 
little  rounds  of  matting  in  front  of  each  seat,  upon 
one  of  which  the  abbe  was  keeping  his  feet  The  cur- 
tains, of  old,  light-green  damask  with  green  flowers, 
were  drawn,  and  the  outer  blinds  had  been  shut 
Two  candles  lit  up  the  table,  leaving  the  room  in 
shadow.  Is  it  necessary  to  say  that  between  the 
two  windows  was  a  fine  pastel  by  Latour  of  the 
(147) 


148  URSULE  MIROUET 

famous  Admiral  de  Portenduere,  the  rival  of  the 
Suffrens,  the  Kergarouets,  the  Guichens  and  the 
Simeuses?  On  the  paneling,  opposite  the  fireplace, 
could  be  seen  the  Vicomte  de  Portenduere,  and 
the  old  lady's  mother,  a  Kergarouet-Ploegat.  And 
so  Savinien's  great-uncle  was  the  Vice-admiral 
Kergarouet,  and  his  cousin  the  Comte  de  Porten- 
duere, the  admiral's  grandson,  both  of  them  very  rich. 
The  Vice-admiral  de  Kergarouet  lived  in  Paris,  and 
the  Comte  de  Portenduere  at  the  castle  of  that  name 
in  the  Dauphine.  His  cousin  the  count  represented 
the  elder  branch,  and  Savinien  was  the  only  off- 
spring of  the  younger  De  Portenduere.  The  count, 
past  forty  years  of  age,  and  married  to  a  rich 
woman,  had  three  children.  His  fortune,  accruing 
from  several  legacies,  amounted — so  it  was  said — 
to  sixty  thousand  francs  income.  Deputy  of  L'Isere, 
he  passed  his  winters  in  Paris,  where  he  had  bought 
back  the  De  Portenduere  mansion  with  the  indem- 
nities brought  him  by  the  Villele  law.  The  Vice- 
admiral  de  Kergarouet  had  recently  married  his 
niece,  Mademoiselle  de  Fontaine,  solely  in  order 
to  secure  her  his  fortune.  And  so  the  viscount's 
shortcomings  were  to  lose  him  two  powerful  pro- 
tectors. If  Savinien,  a  young  and  handsome  fellow, 
had  entered  the  navy,  with  his  name  and  backed 
by  an  admiral  and  a  deputy,  he  might  perhaps  at 
twenty-three  have  already  been  a  lieutenant;  but 
his  mother,  objecting  to  her  only  son  being  des- 
tined for  a  military  career,  had  had  him  educated 
at  Nemours  by  one  of  the  Abbe  Chaperon's  curates, 


URSULE  MIROUET  149 

and  had  flattered  herself  that  she  would  be  able  to 
keep  her  son  beside  her  until  her  death.  She  sensi- 
bly wished  to  marry  him  to  a  Demoiselle  d'Aigle- 
mont,  worth  twelve  thousand  francs  a  year,  to 
whose  hand  the  name  of  De  Portenduere  and  the 
farm  of  the  Bordieres  made  it  possible  to  aspire. 
This  restricted  but  prudent  scheme,  which  might 
restore  the  family  to  the  second  generation,  was  to 
be  defeated  by  events.  The  D'Aiglemonts  then 
became  ruined,  and  one  of  their  daughters,  the 
eldest,  Helene,  disappeared  without  the  family  giv- 
ing any  explanation  of  this  mystery.  The  tedium 
of  a  life  without  freedom,  outlet  or  action,  with  no 
other  food  than  filial  love,  so  wearied  Savinien, 
that  he  burst  his  bonds,  however  gentle  they  might 
be,  and  swore  never  to  live  in  a  province,  under- 
standing, somewhat  late,  that  his  future  was  not 
limited  to  the  Rue  des  Bourgeois.  And  so  at  twenty- 
one  he  had  left  his  mother  to  make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  his  relations  and  try  his  luck  in  Paris. 
To  a  young  man  of  twenty-one,  free,  unopposed, 
necessarily  eager  for  pleasure  and  to  whose  name  of 
De  Portenduere  and  rich  kindred  all  fashionable 
circles  were  open,  the  life  of  Nemours  and  the  life 
of  Paris  were  bound  to  form  a  fatal  contrast  Cer- 
tain that  his  mother  was  keeping  the  savings  of 
twenty  years  hoarded  in  some  hiding-place,  Savinien 
soon  spent  the  six  thousand  francs  she  had  given 
him  with  which  to  see  Paris.  This  sum  did  not 
defray  the  expenses  of  his  first  six  months,  and 
then  he  owed  double  that  amount  to  his  hotel,  his 


150  URSULE  MIROUET 

tailor,  his  bootmaker,  his  livery-stable  keeper,  to 
a  jeweler,  and  to  all  the  tradesmen  who  contribute 
to  the  luxury  of  young  men.  He  had  hardly  suc- 
ceeded in  becoming  known,  hardly  learnt  how  to 
talk,  to  make  calls,  to  wear  his  waistcoats  and 
choose  them,  to  order  his  clothes  and  to  put  on  a 
tie,  when  he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  thirty 
thousand  francs'  worth  of  debt  and  knowing  no 
better  than  to  seek  a  delicate  turn  of  expression  in 
which  to  declare  his  love  to  the  sister  of  the  Mar- 
quis de  Ronquerolles,  Madame  de  Serizy,  a  fashion- 
able woman,  but  whose  youth  had  bloomed  under 
the  Empire. 

"How  did  you  others  extricate  yourselves?"  said 
Savinien  one  day,  at  the  end  of  a  breakfast,  to  a 
few  dandies  with  whom  he  had  formed  a  connection, 
as  nowadays  young  men  form  connections  whose 
affectations  in  everything  aim  at  the  same  goal  and 
who  lay  claim  to  an  impossible  equality. 

"You  were  no  richer  than  I,  you  go  along  without 
anxiety,  you  keep  up  your  positions,  and  I,  I  already 
have  debts!" 

"We  all  began  that  way,"  laughed  Rastignac, 
Lucien  de  Rubempre,  Maxime  de  Trailles,  and 
Emile  Blondet,  the  dandies  of  the  day. 

"If  De  Marsay  happened  to  be  rich  at  the  outset 
of  life,  it  was  an  accident!"  said  the  host,  a  parvenu 
called  Finot,  who  was  trying  to  associate  with 
these  young  men.  "And  had  he  not  been  himself," 
he  added,  bowing  to  him,  "his  fortune  might  be  the 
undoing  of  him." 


URSULE  MIROUET  15 1 

"You  have  hit  upon  the  right  expression,"  said 
Maxime  de  Trailles. 

"And  the  right  idea  too,"  rejoined  Rastignac. 

"My  dear  fellow,"  said  De  Marsay  gravely,  to 
Savinien,  "debts  are  the  silent  partners  of  experi- 
ence. A  good  University  education  with  masters 
for  accomplishments  and  for  uninviting  utilities, 
who  teach  you  nothing,  costs  sixty  thousand  francs. 
If  the  world's  education  costs  double  that,  it  teaches 
you  life,  business,  politics,  men,  and  sometimes, 
women." 

Blondet  concluded  this  lesson  with  this  translation 
of  a  verse  from  La  Fontaine : 

"  The  world  sells  dearly  what  one  thinks  it  gives  I" 

Instead  of  pondering  over  the  sense  of  what  was 
told  him  by  the  most  skilful  pilots  of  the  Parisian 
archipelago,  Savinien  merely  took  it  as  a  joke. 

"Take  care,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  De  Marsay, 
"you  have  a  good  name,  and  if  you  do  not  get  the 
good  luck  required  by  your  name,  you  may  end  your 
days  in  the  garb  of  a  quarter-master  in  a  cavalry 
regiment — 

"  Nobler  heads  have  we  seen  fall !" 

he  added,  spouting  this  verse  by  Corneille  and  tak- 
ing Savinien's  arm — "Nearly  six  years  ago,"  he 
resumed,  "a  young  Comte  d'Esgrignon  came 
amongst  us,  who  did  not  live  more  than  two  years 
in  the  paradise  of  high  life!  Alas!  he  lived  the  life 


152  URSULE  MIROUET 

of  a  rocket  He  soared  as  high  as  to  the  Duchesse 
de  Maufrigneuse,  and  he  relapsed  into  his  native 
town,  where  he  atones  for  his  trespasses  between  an 
old  catarrhal  father  and  a  game  of  whist  at  two- 
penny points.  Tell  Madame  de  Serizy  your  posi- 
tion quite  simply,  without  shame;  she  would  be 
very  useful  to  you ;  whilst,  if  you  play  the  charade 
of  a  first  love  with  her,  she  will  pose  as  a  Raphael 
Madonna,  play  at  forfeits  and  make  you  journey  at 
great  expense  into  the  Land  of  Love." 

Savinien,  still  too  young,  and  out  of  sheer  gentle- 
manly honor,  did  not  dare  confess  his  financial  posi- 
tion to  Madame  de  Serizy.  Madame  de  Portenduere, 
just  when  her  son  did  not  know  which  way  to  turn, 
sent  twenty  thousand  francs — all  that  she  possessed 
— in  consequence  of  a  letter  in  which  Savinien, 
initiated  by  his  friends  into  the  ballistics  of  the 
wiles  directed  by  children  against  the  paternal 
strong-box,  spoke  of  bills  to  be  paid  and  of  the  dis- 
grace of  allowing  his  signature  to  be  protested. 
With  this  assistance  he  reached  the  end  of  the  first 
year.  The  second  year,  still  bound  to  the  chariot 
wheels  of  Madame  de  Serizy,  who  was  seriously  in 
love  with  him  and  who  also  improved  him,  he 
availed  himself  of  the  dangerous  aid  of  usurers.  A 
deputy  among  his  friends,  a  friend  of  his  cousin  De 
Portenduere,  Des  Lupeaulx,  directed  him,  one  day 
of  distress,  to  Gobseck,  to  Gigonnet  and  to  Palma, 
who,  rightly  and  duly  informed  of  the  value  of 
his  mother's  property,  gave  him  delightfully  easy 
discount  The  usurer  and  the  delusive  help  of 


URSULE  MIROUET  153 

renewals  made  his  life  happy  for  about  eighteen 
months.  Without  daring  to  forsake  Madame  de 
Serizy,  the  poor  boy  fell  madly  in  love  with  the 
beautiful  Comtesse  de  Kergarouet,  prudish  like  all 
young  women  who  are  waiting  for  the  death  of 
an  old  husband,  and  who  skilfully  preserve  their 
virtue  for  a  second  marriage.  Incapable  of  under- 
standing that  a  calculated  virtue  is  unconquerable, 
Savinien  continued  paying  his  court  to  Emilie  de 
Kergarouet  with  the  full  appearance  of  a  rich  man ; 
he  never  missed  a  ball  or  a  play  at  which  she  hap- 
pened to  be. 

"My  dear  fellow,  you  have  not  got  enough  pow- 
der with  which  to  blow  up  that  rock,"  said  De 
Marsay  to  him  one  evening,  laughing. 

In  vain  this  young  king  of  Paris  fashion,  out  of 
pity,  tried  to  explain  Emilie  de  Fontaine  to  this 
boy;  it  needed  the  dismal  enlightenment  of  misery 
and  the  darkness  of  a  prison  to  open  Savinien's 
eyes.  A  bill  of  exchange,  rashly  signed  for  a  jew- 
eler, in  league  with  the  usurers  who  did  not  want 
to  have  the  odium  of  the  arrest,  caused  Savinien 
de  Portenduere,  unknown  to  his  friends,  to  be  im- 
prisoned at  Sainte-Pelagie  for  the  sum  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  thousand  francs.  As  soon  as 
Rastignac,  De  Marsay  and  Lucien  de  Rubempre 
heard  this  news,  all  three  came  to  see  Savinien  and 
finding  him  stripped  of  everything,  each  one  offered 
him  a  bill  for  one  thousand  francs.  The  valet, 
bribed  by  two  creditors,  had  told  of  the  secret  apart- 
ment where  Savinien  lodged,  and  everything  had 


154  URSULE  MIROUET 

been  seized,  except  the  clothes  and  the  little  jewelry 
that  he  was  wearing.  The  three  young  men,  pro- 
vided with  an  excellent  dinner,  and  whilst  drinking 
the  sherry  brought  by  De  Marsay,  enquired  into 
Savinien's  situation,  apparently  in  order  to  organize 
his  future,  but  doubtless  in  order  to  try  him. 

"When  one  is  called  Savinien  de  Portenduere," 
cried  Rastignac,  "when  one  has  a  future  peer  of 
France  for  a  cousin,  and  the  Admiral  de  Kergarouet 
for  a  great-uncle,  if  one  commits  the  huge  mistake 
of  allowing  one's  self  to  be  put  in  Sainte-Pelagie, 
one  must  not  stay  there,  my  dear  fellow!" 

"Why  did  you  tell  me  nothing  of  all  this?"  cried 
De  Marsay,  "you  had  my  traveling  carriage,  ten 
thousand  francs  and  letters  for  Germany  at  your 
disposal.  We  know  Gobseck,  Gigonnet  and  other 
crocodiles,  we  would  have  made  them  come  to 
terms.  And  in  the  first  place,  who  was  the  ass 
who  led  you  to  drink  at  this  deadly  source?"  asked 
De  Marsay. 

"Des  Lupeaulx." 

The  three  young  men  looked  at  each  other,  thus 
exchanging  the  same  thought,  a  suspicion,  but 
without  uttering  it 

"Explain  your  resources  to  me,  show  me  your 
hand?"  asked  De  Marsay. 

When  Savinien  had  described  his  mother  and  her 
bow-trimmed  caps,  her  little  house  with  its  three 
windows  facing  the  Rue  des  Bourgeois,  with  no  other 
garden  than  a  yard  with  a  well  and  a  shed  for  stor- 
ing the  wood ;  when  he  had  counted  up  the  value  of 


URSULE  MIROUET  155 

this  house,  built  of  sandstone,  rough-cast  in  reddish 
mortar,  and  had  appreciated  the  Bordieres  farm,  the 
three  dandies  looked  at  each  other  and  feelingly 
quoted  the  saying  of  the  abbe  in  the  Marrons  du 
Feu,  by  Alfred  de  Musset,  whose  Contes  d'Espagne 
had  just  then  appeared: 

"Sad!" 

"Your  mother  would  pay  on  receipt  of  a  cleverly 
written  letter,"  said  Rastignac. 

"Yes,  and  then — ?"  cried  De  Marsay. 

"Had you  only  been  put  into  a  cab,"  said  Lucien, 
"the  King's  government  would  have  procured  you 
a  position  in  diplomacy ;  but  Sainte-Pelagie  is  not 
the  anteroom  of  an  embassy." 

"You  are  not  strong  enough  for  Paris  life,"  said 
Rastignac. 

"Let's  see!"  rejoined  De  Marsay,  measuring  Sav- 
in ien  as  a  dealer  rates  a  horse,  "you  have  beautiful, 
well-formed  blue  eyes,  you  have  a  white,  well-cut 
forehead,  magnificent  black  hair,  a  small  moustache 
which  looks  well  against  your  pale  cheeks,  and  a 
slender  figure;  you  have  a  foot  which  indicates 
breeding,  shoulders  and  chest  that  are  not  too  much 
like  a  porter's  and  are  yet  solid.  You  are  what  I 
call  an  elegant  dark  man.  Your  face  is  of  the  Louis 
XIII.  style,  with  little  color,  and  a  nicely  shaped 
nose;  and  you  have  besides,  that  which  pleases 
women,  a  something  indefinable  that  men  themselves 
do  not  understand  and  which  is  in  the  appearance, 
the  bearing,  the  sound  of  the  voice,  in  the  darting  of 
the  glance,  in  the  gestures,  a  host  of  little  things- 


156  URSULE  MIROUET 

that  women  see  and  to  which  they  attach  a  certain 
meaning  which  escapes  us.  You  do  not  know  your- 
self, my  dear  fellow.  With  a  little  steadiness,  in  six 
months  you  would  bewitch  an  Englishwoman  with 
a  hundred  thousand  francs,  especially  by  taking 
the  title  of  Vicomte  de  Portenduere  to  which  you 
have  a  right.  My  charming  mother-in-law,  Lady 
Dudley,  who  is  without  her  match  in  impaling  two 
hearts,  will  discover  her  for  you  in  some  one  of  the 
alluvial  grounds  of  Great  Britain.  But  you  must  be 
able  and  know  how  to  carry  over  your  debts  for 
ninety  days  by  some  deft  manoeuvre  of  financial 
policy.  Why  did  you  keep  it  from  me?  At 
Baden,  the  usurers  would  have  respected  you,  and 
perhaps  have  served  you;  but,  after  having  put  you 
in  prison  they  despise  you.  The  usurer  is  like 
society,  like  the  people,  on  his  knees  before  a  man 
who  is  strong  enough  to  laugh  at  him,  and  pitiless 
toward  the  lambs.  In  the  eyes  of  certain  people, 
Sainte-Pelagie  is  a  she-devil  who  madly  scorches 
young  men's  souls.  Do  you  want  my  advice,  my 
dear  boy?  I  should  say  to  you  as  to  little  D'Esgri- 
gnon:  'Pay  your  debts  with  caution,  keeping 
enough  to  live  upon  for  three  years,  and  marry  in 
the  provinces  the  first  girl  who  may  have  thirty 
thousand  francs  income.  In  three  years,  you  will 
have  found  some  sensible  heiress  who  wants  to  call 
herself  Madame  de  Portenduere. '  This  is  wisdom. 
So  let  us  drink.  I  propose  this  toast:  'To  the  girl 
with  cash!'  " 

The  young  men  did  not  leave  their  ex-friend  until 


URSULE  MIROUET  157 

the  official  hour  for  leave-taking,  and  on  the  door- 
step they  said  to  each  other : 

"He  is  not  strong!"  "He  is  very  much  down- 
cast!" "Will  he  get  over  it?" 

The  next  day,  Savinien  wrote  his  mother  a  gen- 
eral confession  of  twenty-two  pages.  After  having 
wept  for  a  whole  day,  Madame  de  Portenduere  first 
wrote  to  her  son,  promising  to  get  him  out  of  prison : 
then  to  the  Comtes  de  Portenduere  and  De  Ker- 
garouet. 

The  letters  that  the  cure  had  just  been  reading 
and  that  the  poor  mother  was  holding  in  her  hands, 
wet  with  tears,  had  arrived  that  same  morning  and 
had  broken  her  heart 

TO  MADAME  DE  PORTENDUERE 

"Paris,  September,  1829. 
"MADAME, 

"You  cannot  doubt  the  interest  the  admiral  and  I  take  in 
your  troubles.  What  you  write  to  Monsieur  de  Kergarouet 
grieves  me  all  the  more  as  my  house  was  your  son's;  we 
were  proud  of  him.  If  Savinien  had  had  more  confidence  in 
the  admiral  we  would  have  taken  him  with  us,  and  he  would 
already  have  been  suitably  placed;  but  he  said  nothing  to  us, 
the  unhappy  boy !  The  admiral  could  not  pay  a  hundred 
thousand  francs;  he  is  in  debt  himself  and  has  involved  him- 
self for  me  who  knew  nothing  of  his  pecuniary  position.  He 
is  all  the  more  grieved  in  that  Savinien  has,  for  the  moment, 
tied  our  hands  by  allowing  himself  to  be  arrested.  If  my  hand- 
some nephew  had  not  had  I  cannot  say  how  foolish  a  passion 
for  me  which  stifled  the  voice  of  the  kinship  in  the  pride  of 
the  lover,  we  would  have  made  him  travel  in  Germany  whilst 
his  affairs  were  being  settled  here.  Monsieur  de  Kergarouet 


158  URSULE  MIROUET 

would  have  been  able  to  ask  for  a  post  in  the  naval  offices 
for  his  grand-nephew;  but  an  imprisonment  for  debt  will 
doubtless  paralyze  the  admiral's  applications.  Pay  Savi- 
nien's  debts,  let  him  serve  in  the  navy— he  will  make  his  way 
like  a  true  Portenduere — he  has  their  fire  in  his  beautiful 
black  eyes — and  we  will  all  help  him. 

"  So  do  not  despair,  madame ;  you  still  have  friends, 
amongst  whom  I  wish  to  be  included  as  one  of  the  most 
sincere,  and  I  send  all  wishes  with  the  respects  of 

"Your  very  affectionate  servant, 

"EMiLiE  DE  KERGAROUET." 

TO  MADAME  DE  PORTENDUERE. 

"Portenduere,  August,  1829. 
"MY  DEAR  AUNT, 

"I  am  as  much  vexed  as  distressed  at  Savinien's  escapades. 
Married,  the  father  of  two  sons  and  a  daughter,  my  fortune, 
already  so  slender  relatively  to  my  position  and  prospects,  does 
not  permit  me  to  diminish  it  by  a  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand 
francs  to  pay  the  ransom  of  a  Portenduere  whom  the  money- 
lenders have  seized.  Sell  your  farm,  pay  his  debts  and  come 
to  Portenduere;  you  will  there  find  the  welcome  we  owe  you, 
even  were  our  hearts  not  wholly  yours.  You  will  live  happily, 
and  we  will  end  by  marrying  Savinien,  whom  my  wife  thinks 
charming.  This  prank  is  nothing,  do  not  be  unhappy,  it  will 
never  be  known  in  our  province,  where  we  know  several  very 
rich  girls  who  would  be  delighted  to  belong  to  us. 

"My  wife  joins  with  me  in  telling  you  of  the  pleasure  you 
would  give  us,  and  begs  you  will  accept  her  wishes  for  the 
realization  of  this  project  and  the  assurance  of  our  affectionate 

respects. 

"LUC-SAVINIEN  COMTE  DE  PORTENDUERE." 

"What  letters  for  a  Kergarouet!"  cried  the  old 
Bretonne,  wiping  her  eyes. 

"The  admiral  does  not  know  that  his  nephew  is 


URSULE  MIROUET  159 

in  prison,"  finally  said  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  "onJy 
the  countess  has  read  your  letter,  and  she  has  an- 
swered it  But  it  is  necessary  to  come  to  some 
decision,"  he  continued  after  a  pause,  "and  this  is 
what  I  have  the  honor  of  advising  you  to  do.  Do 
not  sell  your  farm.  The  lease  is  up,  and  it  has 
lasted  now  for  twenty-four  years ;  in  a  few  months, 
you  will  be  able  to  raise  the  rent  to  six  thousand 
francs,  and  have  a  bonus  equal  to  two  years'  rent 
Borrow  from  an  honest  man,  and  not  from  the  men 
of  the  town  who  trade  in  mortgages.  Your  neighbor 
is  a  worthy  man,  a  man  of  good  society,  who  was 
in  the  fashionable  world  before  the  Revolution,  and 
who  from  atheism  has  turned  to  Catholicism.  Do  not 
feel  any  reluctance  in  coming  to  see  him  this  evening, 
he  would  be  much  affected  by  your  step ;  forget  for 
a  moment  that  you  are  a  Kergarouet" 

"Never!"  said  the  aged  mother  in  a  harsh  voice. 

"Well  then,  be  an  amiable  Kergaroue't;  come 
when  he  is  alone,  he  will  only  lend  at  three  and  a 
half,  perhaps  at  three  per  cent,  and  will  do  you  ser- 
vice with  delicacy,  you  will  be  pleased;  he  himself 
will  go  to  deliver  Savinien,  for  he  would  be  obliged 
to  sell  some  stock,  and  he  will  bring  him  back  to 
you." 

"Are  you  then  speaking  of  that  little  Minoret?" 

"That  little  one  is  eighty-three  years  old,  "replied 
the  Abbe  Chaperon,  smiling.  "My  dear  lady,  have 
a  little  Christian  charity,  do  not  wound  him,  he 
may  be  useful  to  you  in  more  ways  than  one." 

"And  how?" 


160  URSULE  MIROUET 

"But  he  has  an  angel  beside  him,  the  most 
heavenly  young  girl — " 

"Yes,  that  little  Ursule— Well,  and  then?" 

The  poor  cure  dared  not  continue  upon  hearing 
that  "Well, — and  then?"  the  dryness  and  asperity 
of  which  decided  beforehand  the  proposition  that 
he  wished  to  make. 

"I  believe  doctor  Minoretto  be  extremely  rich — " 

"All  the  better  for  him." 

"You  have  very  indirectly  caused  your  son's 
present  misfortunes  by  not  giving  him  any  career, 
take  care  of  the  future!"  said  the  cure  severely. 
"Am  I  to  announce  your  visit  to  your  neighbor?" 

"But  why,  knowing  that  I  want  him,  should  he 
not  come  here?" 

"Ah!  madame!  by  going  to  him,  you  will  pay 
three  per  cent,  and,  if  he  comes  to  you,  you  will 
pay  five,"  said  the  cure,  who  hit  upon  this  good 
reason  in  order  to  decide  the  old  lady,  "and,  if  you 
were  forced  to  sell  your  farm  through  Dionis  the 
notary,  or  through  Massin  the  clerk,  who  would 
refuse  you  cash  in  the  hope  of  profiting  by  your 
misfortune,  you  would  lose  half  the  value  of  the 
Bordieres.  I  have  not  the  least  influence  over  the 
Dionis,  the  Massins,  and  the  Levraults,  rich  men  of 
the  district  who  covet  your  farm  and  know  that 
your  son  is  in  prison." 

"They  know  it!  they  know  it!"  she  cried,  raising 
her  arms. — "Oh!  my  poor  cure,  you  have  let  your 
coffee  grow  cold — Tiennette!  Tiennette!" 

Tiennette,  an  old  Bretonne  in  a  Breton  jacket  and 


URSULE  MIROUET  l6l 

cap,  about  sixty  years  old,  entered  briskly  and  took 
the  cure's  coffee  to  heat  it. 

"Stay  quiet,  Monsieur  le  Recteur,"she  said,  see- 
ing that  the  cure  wanted  to  drink  it,  "I  will  put  it 
into  hot  water,  it  will  not  get  nasty." 

"Well,"  resumed  the  cure  with  his  insinuating 
voice,  "I  will  go  and  warn  Monsieur  le  Docteur  of 
your  visit,  and  you  will  come." 

The  old  mother  only  yielded  after  an  hour's  dis- 
cussion, in  which  the  cure  was  obliged  to  repeat  his 
arguments  ten  times  over.  And  even  then  the 
haughty  Kergarouet  was  only  conquered  by  these 
parting  words : 

"Savinien  would  go!" 

"Then  it  is  better  that  I  go,"  she  said 


ii 


Nine  o'clock  was  striking  when  the  little  door 
contrived  within  the  large  one  closed  upon  the  cure, 
who  eagerly  rang  at  the  doctor's  gate.  From  Tien- 
nette  the  Abbe  Chaperon  fell  into  the  hands  of  La 
Bougival,  for  the  old  nurse  said : 

"You  are  very  late,  Monsieur  le  Cure!"  just  as 
the  other  had  said:  "Why  do  you  leave  madame  so 
early  when  she  is  in  trouble?" 

The  cure  found  a  large  party  in  the  doctor's  green 
and  brown  salon,  for  Dionis  had  been  to  reassure 
the  heirs,  by  calling  on  Massin  to  repeat  his  uncle's 
words  to  him. 

"I  think,"  he  said,  "that  Ursule  has  a  love  in  her 
heart  which  will  give  her  nothing  but  sorrow  and 
anxiety ;  she  seems  to  be  romantic — thus  do  nota- 
ries term  excessive  sensitiveness,— and  we  shall 
see  her  long  remain  single.  Therefore,  no  suspi- 
cion; show  her  particular  attention,  and  be  your 
uncle's  servants,  for  he  is  more  cunning  than  a  hun- 
dred Goupils,"  added  the  notary,  not  knowing  that 
Goupil  is  a  corruption  of  the  latin  word,  vulpes,  a 
fox. 

And  so,  Mesdames  Massin  and  Cremiere,  their 

husbands,  the  postmaster  and  Desire  formed,  with 

the     Nemours     doctor     and    Bongrand,    a    noisy 

and  unwonted  company  at  the  doctor's  house.     As 

(163) 


164  URSULE  MIROUET 

he  came  in  the  Abbe  Chaperon  heard  the  sound  of 
the  piano.  Poor  Ursule  was  finishing  Beethoven's 
symphony  in  A. 

With  the  craftiness  that  innocence  is  allowed,  the 
child,  whom  her  godfather  had  enlightened  and  who 
disliked  the  heirs, chose  this  grand  music  which  has 
to  be  studied  to  be  understood,  so  as  to  put  these 
women  out  of  conceit  with  their  fancy.  The  more 
beautiful  music  is,  the  less  ignorant  people  enjoy  it. 
And  so,  when  the  door  opened  and  the  Abbe  Chape- 
ron showed  his  venerable  head  the  heirs  cried: 
"Ah!  here  is  Monsieur  le  Cure!"  all  delighted  at 
being  able  to  get  up  and  put  an  end  to  their 
torture. 

The  exclamation  found  an  echo  at  the  card-table, 
where  Bongrand,  the  Nemours  doctor  and  the  old 
man  were  victims  of  the  presumption  with  which 
the  tax-collector,  in  order  to  please  his  great-uncle, 
had  proposed  himself  as  a  fourth  at  whist  Ursule 
left  the  piano.  The  doctor  rose  as  if  to  greet  the 
cure,  but  really  to  put  a  stop  to  the  game.  After 
greatly  complimenting  their  uncle  upon  his  god- 
daughter's talent,  the  heirs  made  their  bows. 

"Good-night,  my  friends,"  cried  the  doctor  when 
the  iron  gate  resounded. 

"Ah!  is  that  what  costs  so  dear?"  said  Madame 
Cremiere  to  Madame  Massin  when  they  had  gone  a 
few  steps. 

"Heaven  defend  me  from  giving  the  money  for 
my  little  Aline  to  treat  me  to  such  a  clatter  in  the 
house!"  replied  Madame  Massin. 


URSULE  MIROUET  165 

"She  said  that  it  was  by  Bethovan  who  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  great  musician,"  said  the  tax-col  lector, 
"he  has  some  reputation." 

"Upon  my  faith!  it  is  not  at  Nemours  then,"  re- 
joined Madame  Cremiere,  "and  he  is  well  named 
Bete  £  vent" 

"I  believe  that  our  uncle  did  it  on  purpose  so  that 
we  should  not  go  there  again,"  said  Massin,  "for  he 
winked  at  his  conceited  creature  as  he  showed  the 
green  volume." 

"If  they  amuse  themselves  with  that  racket," 
returned  the  postmaster,  "they  do  well  to  stay  by 
themselves." 

"The  justice  of  the  peace  must  be  very  fond  of 
playing  to  listen  to  those  Sonacles, "  said  Madame 
Cremiere. 

"I  shall  never  be  able  to  play  before  people  who 
do  not  understand  music,"  said  Ursule,  going  and 
sitting  beside  the  card-table. 

"Ideas,  with  richly  organized  people,  can  only 
develop  in  a  favorable  sphere,"  said  the  cure  of 
Nemours.  "In  the  same  way  as  a  priest  could  not 
bless  in  the  presence  of  an  evil  spirit,  as  the  chest- 
nut dies  in  rich  ground,  so  a  musical  genius  experi- 
ences an  inward  defeat  when  he  is  surrounded 
by  ignorant  persons.  In  all  the  arts  we  must  re- 
ceive, from  the  souls  that  serve  as  a  medium  to  our 
souls,  as  much  strength  as  we  impart  to  them. 
This  axiom  which  governs  human  affections  has 
prompted  the  proverbs:  'One  must  do  as  others 
do;'  'Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together.'  But  the 


166  URSULE  MIROUET 

suffering  that  you  must  have  endured  only  overtakes 
tender,  delicate  natures." 

"Therefore,  my  friends,"  said  the  doctor,  "a 
thing  that  would  merely  pain  any  other  woman 
might  kill  my  little  Ursule.  Ah!  when  I  am  no 
more,  raise  that  protecting  hedge  between  this  dear 
flower  and  the  world  which  is  spoken  of  in  Catul- 
lus' verse:  Utflos,  etc." 

"And  yet  these  ladies  were  very  flattering 
to  you,  Ursule,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
smiling. 

"Coarsely  flattering,"  observed  the  Nemours 
doctor. 

"I  have  always  remarked  coarseness  in  flattery 
made  to  order,"  replied  old  Minoret,  "and  why?" 

"A  genuine  thought  bears  its  own  delicacy,"  said 
the  abbe. 

"You  dined  with  Madame  de  Portenduere?"  then 
said  Ursule,  questioning  the  Abbe  Chaperon  with 
a  look  full  of  anxious  curiosity. 

"Yes,  the  poor  lady  is  much  distressed,  and  it  is 
possible  that  she  may  come  to  see  you  to-night, 
Monsieur  Minoret" 

"If  she  is  in  trouble  and  has  need  of  me,  I  will 
call  upon  her,"  cried  the  doctor,  "let  us  finish  the 
last  rubber." 

Under  the  table  Ursule  squeezed  the  old  man's 
hand. 

"Her  son,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace,  "was  a 
little  too  simple  to  live  in  Paris  without  a  mentor. 
When  I  knew  that  enquiries  were  being  made  at 


URSULE  MIROUET  167 

the  notary's  about  the  old  lady's  farm,  I  guessed 
that  he  was  discounting  his  mother's  death." 

"Do  you  believe  him  capable  of  it?"  said  Ursule, 
darting  a  terrible  look  at  Monsieur  Bongrand,  who 
said  to  himself:  "Alas!  yes!  she  loves  him." 

"Yes  and  no,"  said  the  Nemours  doctor,  "Savi- 
nien  has  good  in  him  and  that  is  why  he  is  in  prison ; 
rascals  never  go  there." 

"My  friends,"  cried  old  Minoret,  "this  is  quite 
enough  for  to-night;  one  must  not  allow  a  poor 
mother  to  weep  a  moment  longer,  when  one  can  dry 
her  tears." 

The  four  friends  rose  and  went  out  Ursule  ac- 
companied them  as  far  as  the  iron  gate,  watching 
her  godfather  and  the  cure  knocking  at  the  opposite 
door;  and,  when  Tiennette  had  shown  them  in,  she 
sat  down  on  one  of  the  posts  outside  the  house, 
with  La  Bougival  beside  her. 

"Madame  la  Vicomtesse,"  said  the  cure,  who  was 
the  first  to  enter  the  little  parlor,  "Monsieur  le 
Docteur  did  not  at  all  wish  you  to  take  the  trouble 
to  go  to  his  house — " 

"I  belong  too  much  to  bygone  days,  madame," 
rejoined  the  doctor,  "not  to  know  all  that  a  man 
owes  to  a  lady  of  your  rank,  and  I  am  only  too 
happy,  after  what  Monsieur  le  Cure  has  told  me,  to 
be  able  to  render  you  some  service." 

Madame  de  Portenduere,  upon  whom  the  step 
agreed  upon  had  weighed  so  heavily  that,  since  the 
Abbe  Chaperon's  departure,  she  had  resolved  to  ap- 
ply to  the  Nemours  notary,  was  so  surprised  at 


168  URSULE  MIROUET 

Minoret's  delicacy,  that  she  rose  to  return  his  bow 
and  pointed  to  an  armchair. 

"Sit  down,  monsieur,"  she  said  with  a  royal  air, 
"our  dear  cure  will  have  told  you  that  the  viscount 
is  in  prison  for  a  few  boyish  debts,  a  hundred  thou- 
sand francs — If  you  could  lend  them  to  him,  I  would 
give  you  as  security  my  Bordieres  farm." 

"We  will  talk  of  that,  Madame  la  Vicomtesse, 
when  I  shall  have  restored  monsieur  your  son  to 
you,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  be  your  agent  in  these 
circumstances." 

"Very  well,  Monsieur  le  Docteur,"  replied  the  old 
lady,  inclining  her  head,  and  looking  at  the  cure  as 
much  as  to  say,  "You  are  right,  he  is  a  man  of  good 
breeding." 

"My  friend  the  doctor,"  then  said  the  cure,  "is,  as 
you  see,  madame,  full  of  devotion  to  your  family." 

"We  shall  be  very  grateful  to  you,  monsieur," 
said  Madame  de  Portenduere,  with  visible  effort, 
"for,  at  your  age,  to  venture  in  Paris  on  the  track 
of  a  giddy-brain's  misdeeds — " 

"Madame,  in  '65,  I  had  the  honor  of  seeing  the 
illustrious  Admiral  de  Portenduere  at  the  house  of 
that  excellent  Monsieur  de  Malesherbes,  and  at  the 
house  of  Monsieur  le  Comte  de  Buffon,  who  wished 
to  question  him  about  several  curious  facts  of  his 
voyages.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  late  Monsieur 
de  Portenduere,  your  husband,  may  have  been 
there.  At  that  time  the  French  navy  was  glorious, 
it  was  making  head  against  England,  and  in  this  pro- 
fession the  captain  contributed  his  share  of  courage. 


URSULE  MIROUET  169 

How  impatiently,  in  '83  and  '84,  did  we  wait  for 
news  of  the  camp  of  Saint-Roch!  I  all  but  went 
as  doctor  with  the  King's  forces.  At  that  time  your 
great-uncle,  the  Admiral  de  Kergarouet  who  is  still 
living,  waged  his  famous  battle,  for  he  was  on  La 
Belle  Poule." 

"Ah!  if  he  knew  that  his  grand-nephew  were  in 
prison!" 

"Monsieur  le  Vicomte  will  not  be  there  two  days 
longer,"  said  old  Minoret,  rising. 

He  put  out  his  hand  to  take  that  of  the  old  lady, 
who  suffered  him  to  do  so,  he  deposited  a  respectful 
kiss  upon  it,  made  a  low  bow,  and  went  out ;  but  he 
returned  to  say  to  the  cure:  "My  dear  abbe,  will 
you  engage  a  seat  for  me  in  the  diligence  for  to- 
morrow morning?" 

The  cure  remained  about  half  an  hour  singing  the 
praises  of  Doctor  Minoret,  who  had  intended  making 
a  conquest  of  the  old  lady,  and  had  succeeded. 

"He  is  wonderful  for  his  age,"  she  said,  "he  talks 
of  going  to  Paris  and  arranging  my  son's  affairs  as 
if  he  were  only  twenty-five  years  old.  He  has  been 
in  good  society." 

"The  best,  madame;  and,  nowadays,  more  than 
one  son  of  a  poor  French  peer  would  be  glad  to  marry 
his  ward,  who  is  worth  a  million.  Ah!  if  this  idea 
entered  Savinien's  head,  times  are  so  changed,  that 
the  greatest  objections  would  not  be  on  your  side 
after  your  son's  behavior." 

The  profound  astonishment  that  this  last  sentence 
caused  the  old  lady  permitted  the  cure  to  finish. 


170  URSULE  MIROUET 

"You  are  out  of  your  mind,  my  dear  Abbe  Chap- 
eron." 

"You  must  think  of  it,  madame,  and  God  grant 
that  your  son  may  in  future  so  conduct  himself  as  to 
win  this  old  man's  esteem  !" 

"If  it  were  not  you,  Monsieur  le  Cure,"  said  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere,  "if  anybody  else  were  to 
speak  to  me  so — " 

"You  would  not  see  him  again,"  said  the  Abbe 
Chaperon,  smiling.  "Let  us  hope  that  your  dear 
son  will  tell  you  what  goes  on  in  Paris  in  the  way 
of  marriages.  You  will  think  of  Savinien's  hap- 
piness, and,  after  having  already  compromised  his 
future,  will  not  prevent  him  from  creating  himself  a 
position." 

"And  it  is  you  who  say  this  to  me!" 

"If  I  did  not  say  it  to  you,  who  would  ?"  cried  the 
priest,  rising  and  beating  a  hasty  retreat 

The  cure  saw  Ursule  and  her  godfather  walking 
round  the  courtyard.  The  tender-hearted  doctor 
had  been  so  much  teased  by  his  goddaughter  that 
he  had  just  yielded;  she  wanted  to  go  to  Paris  and 
was  giving  him  a  thousand  pretexts.  He  called  the 
cure,  who  came,  and  the  doctor  begged  him  to  retain 
all  the  front  seats  for  him  that  same  evening,  if  the 
diligence  office  were  still  open.  The  next  day,  at 
half-past  six  in  the  evening,  the  old  man  and  the 
young  girl  arrived  in  Par  is,  where,  that  very  evening, 
the  doctor  went  to  consult  his  notary.  Political 
events  were  threatening.  Several  times  the  day  be- 
fore, whilst  talking  with  the  doctor,  the  justice  of 


URSULE  MIROUET  171 

the  peace  at  Nemours  had  said  that  it  was  madness 
to  keep  one  penny's  income  in  stocks  as  long  as 
the  dispute  that  had  arisen  between  the  press  and 
the  Court  was  still  undecided.  Minoret's  notary 
approved  of  the  advice  indirectly  given  by  the  jus- 
tice of  the  peace.  And  so  the  doctor  took  advan- 
tage of  his  journey  to  realize  his  industrial  shares 
and  his  stock,  all  of  which  happened  to  be  rising, 
and  to  deposit  his  funds  in  the  Bank.  The  notary 
also  persuaded  his  old  client  to  sell  out  the  stock 
left  to  Ursule  by  Monsieur  de  Jordy,  and  which,  like 
a  good  father  of  a  family,  he  had  turned  to  account. 
He  promised  to  set  an  exceedingly  crafty  agent  to 
deal  with  Savinien's  creditors;  but  it  was  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  succeed,  that  the  young  man  should 
have  the  courage  to  remain  a  few  days  longer  in 
prison. 

"In  this  sort  of  business  hurry  costs  at  least  fifteen 
per  cent,"  said  the  notary  to  the  doctor.  "And,  in 
the  first  place,  you  will  not  have  your  funds  before 
seven  or  eight  days." 

When  Ursule  heard  that  Savinien  would  be  at 
least  a  week  longer  in  prison,  she  begged  her  guar- 
dian to  let  her  accompany  him  for  once.  Old  Minoret 
refused.  The  uncle  and  the  niece  were  staying  in  a 
hotel  in  the  Rue  Croix-des-Petits-Champs,  where 
the  doctor  had  taken  the  whole  of  a  convenient 
suit;  and,  knowing  his  ward's  conscientiousness, 
made  her  promise  not  to  go  out  when  he  was  gone 
about  his  business.  The  good  old  man  took  Ursule 
about  Paris,  and  showed  her  the  thoroughfares,  the 


172  URSULE  MIROUET 

shops  and  the  boulevards;  but  nothing  interested  or 
amused  her. 

"What  do  you  want  to  do?"  said  the  old  man. 

"To  see  Sainte-Pelagie,"  she  obstinately  replied. 

Then  Minoret  took  a  cab  and  drove  her  as  far  as 
the  Rue  de  la  Clef,  where  the  carriage  stopped  in 
front  of  the  ignoble  facade  of  the  former  monastery, 
now  transformed  into  a  prison.  The  sight  of  these 
high,  gray  walls  where  all  the  windows  were  barred, 
and  the  wicket  can  only  be  entered  by  stooping — 
awful  lesson ! — this  gloomy  pile  in  a  quarter  full  of 
misery  where  it  stands  up  amidst  deserted  streets 
like  a  crowning  misery:  all  these  melancholy 
things  overcame  Ursule  and  made  her  weep  a  little. 

"What!"  she  said,  "are  young  men  imprisoned  for 
money?  how  can  a  debt  give  a  money-lender  even 
greater  power  than  the  king?  And  so  he  is  there!" 
she  cried,  "and  where,  godfather  ?"  she  added,  look- 
ing from  window  to  window. 

"Ursule,"  said  the  old  man,  "you  make  me  play 
the  fool.  This  is  not  forgetting  him." 

"But,"  she  rejoined,  "if  I  must  give  him  up, 
may  I  not  feel  any  interest  in  him  ?  I  can  love  him 
and  marry  nobody  else." 

"Ah!"  cried  the  kind  old  man,  "there  is  so  much 
reason  in  your  infatuation,  that  I  am  sorry  I  brought 
you  here." 

Three  days  later,  the  old  man  had  the  receipts  in 
due  form,  the  claims,  and  all  the  documents  estab- 
lishing Savinien's  freedom.  This  settlement,  in- 
cluding the  agent's  fees,  had  been  effected  for  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  173 

sum  of  eighty  thousand  francs.  The  doctor  still  had 
eight  hundred  thousand  francs  left,  which  his  notary 
made  him  invest  in  Treasury  bonds,  in  order  not  to 
lose  too  much  interest  He  was  keeping  twenty 
thousand  francs  in  bank-notes  for  Savinien.  The 
doctor  went  himself  to  secure  his  freedom  on  Satur- 
day at  two  o'clock,  and  the  young  viscount,  already 
informed  by  a  letter  from  his  mother,  thanked  his 
deliverer  with  sincere  earnestness  of  heart 

"You  must  not  delay  in  going  to  see  your 
mother,"  said  old  Minoret 

Savinien  in  some  confusion  replied  that  he  had 
contracted  a  debt  of  honor  in  prison,  and  related  the 
visit  of  his  friends. 

"I  thought  you  might  have  some  privileged 
debt,"  cried  the  doctor,  smiling,  "your  mother  bor- 
rows one  hundred  thousand  francs  from  me,  but  I 
have  only  paid  ninety  thousand;  here  is  the  remain- 
der, be  careful  of  it,  monsieur,  and  consider  what 
you  keep  of  it  as  your  stake  on  the  green  baize  of 
Fortune." 

During  the  last  eight  days,  Savinien  had  been  re- 
flecting upon  the  present  time.  The  competition 
in  everything  exacts  great  labor  from  the  man  who 
seeks  a  fortune.  Unlawful  means  demand  more 
talent  and  underhand  dealings  than  an  open  quest. 
Worldly  successes,  far  from  giving  any  position, 
devour  time  and  require  an  enormous  amount  of 
money.  The  name  of  Portenduere,  which  his 
mother  had  told  him  was  all-powerful,  was  nothing 
in  Paris.  His  cousin,  the  deputy,  the  Comte  de 


174  URSULE  MIROUET 

Portenduere,  cut  but  a  small  figure  in  the  midst  of 
the  elective  Chamber  in  the  presence  of  the  peerage 
and  the  Court,  and  had  none  too  much  credit  for 
himself.  The  Admiral  de  Kergarouet  only  existed 
through  his  wife.  He  had  seen  orators,  men  who  had 
come  from  social  surroundings  inferior  to  the  nobil- 
ity or  to  the  petty  gentry,  become  influential  persons. 
After  all,  money  was  the  pivot,  the  sole  means,  the 
sole  mover  of  a  society  that  Louis  XVIII.  had  insisted 
upon  creating  in  imitation  of  England.  On  the  way 
from  the  Rue  de  la  Clef  to  the  Rue  Croix-des-Petits- 
Champs,  the  young  man  unfolded  to  the  old  doctor 
the  summary  of  his  reflections,  which  were,  besides, 
in  keeping  with  De  Marsay's  advice. 

"I  must,"  he  said,  "be  forgotten  for  three  or  four 
years,  and  seek  a  profession.  Perhaps  I  may  make 
a  name  by  a  book  on  politics  or  moral  statistics,  or 
by  some  treatise  on  one  of  the  questions  of  the 
hour.  In  short,  while  trying  to  marry  a  young 
girl  who  will  consider  me  eligible,  I  will  work  under 
cover  and  in  silence." 

By  carefully  studying  the  young  man's  face,  the 
doctor  recognized  the  seriousness  of  the  wounded 
man  who  longs  for  revenge.  He  highly  approved 
of  this  plan. 

"Neighbor,"  he  said,  in  conclusion,  "if  you  have 
cast  off  the  skin  of  the  old  nobility,  which  is  no 
longer  admissible  nowadays,  after  three  or  four 
years  of  a  steady,  industrious  life,  I  will  undertake 
to  find  you  a  superior,  beautiful,  amiable  and  pious 
young  girl,  possessed  of  seven  to  eight  hundred 


URSULE  MIROUET  175 

thousand  francs,  who  will  make  you  happy  and  of 
whom  you  will  be  proud,  but  who  will  be  noble 
only  in  heart" 

"Eh!  doctor!"  cried  the  young  man,  "nowadays 
there  is  no  longer  a  nobility,  there  is  only  an  aris- 
tocracy." 

"Go  and  pay  your  debts  of  honor  and  return  here; 
I  am  going  to  engage  the  front  seat  of  the  diligence, 
for  my  ward  is  with  me,"  said  the  old  man. 

At  six  o'clock  that  night,  the  three  travelers  left 
in  the  Dueler  from  the  Rue  Dauphine.  Ursule, 
who  had  put  on  a  veil,  never  spoke  a  word.  After 
having,  through  an  impulse  of  superficial  gallantry, 
sent  that  kiss  which  did  as  much  havoc  with  Ursule 
as  a  whole  book  of  love  would  have  done,  Savinien 
had  entirely  forgotten  the  doctor's  ward  in  the  tor- 
ments of  his  debts,  and,  besides,  his  hopeless  love 
for  £milie  de  Kergarouet  did  not  allow  him  to  give  a 
thought  to  a  few  looks  exchanged  with  a  little  girl 
of  Nemours;  and  so  he  did  not  recognize  her  when 
the  old  man  helped  her  up  first  and  placed  himself 
beside  her  so  as  to  separate  her  from  the  young 
viscount 

"I  shall  have  some  accounts  to  give  you,"  said 
the  doctor  to  the  young  man,  "I  am  bringing  you 
all  your  old  papers." 

"I  very  nearly  did  not  come,"  said  Savinien, 
"for  I  had  to  order  some  clothes  and  linen;  the 
Philistines  have  robbed  me  of  everything,  and  I  am 
arriving  like  the  prodigal  son." 

However  interesting  the  subjects  of  conversation 


176  URSULE  MIROUET 

between  the  young  and  the  old  man  might  be,  how- 
ever witty  certain  of  Savinien's  answers,  the  young 
girl  remained  dumb  until  the  twilight,  her  green 
veil  lowered,  her  hands  crossed  over  her  shawl. 

"Mademoiselle  does  not  look  as  if  she  had  been 
fascinated  by  Paris,"  said  Savinien  finally,  piqued. 

"I  am  glad  to  return  to  Nemours,"  she  replied  in 
a  voice  of  emotion,  raising  her  veil.  In  spite  of 
the  darkness,  Savinien  then  recognized  her  by  the 
size  of  her  plaits  and  her  shining  blue  eyes. 

"And  I,  I  leave  Paris  without  regret  to  bury  myself 
in  Nemours,  since  I  find  my  beautiful  neighbor 
there,"  he  said.  "I  hope,  Monsieur  le  Docteur,  that 
you  will  allow  me  to  call  upon  you ;  I  love  music,  and 
I  remember  having  heard  Mademoiselle  Ursule's 
piano." 

"I  do  not  know,  monsieur,"  said  the  doctor 
gravely,  "whether  your  mother  will  wish  to  see  you 
visiting  an  old  man  who  is  bound  to  feel  all  a 
mother's  anxiety  for  this  dear  child." 

This  guarded  reply  gave  Savinien  much  food  for 
thought  and  he  then  remembered  the  kiss  so  lightly 
sent.  The  night  had  come,  the  heat  was  oppres- 
sive, Savinien  and  the  doctor  were  the  first  to  fall 
asleep.  Ursule,  who  was  awake  a  long  time  mak- 
ing plans,  succumbed  toward  midnight  She  had 
removed  her  little  hat  of  ordinary  plaited  straw. 
Her  head,  covered  with  an  embroidered  cap,  soon 
lay  upon  her  godfather's  shoulder.  At  break  of 
day,  at  Bouron,  Savinien  was  the  first  to  awaken. 
He  then  noticed  Ursule  with  the  disordered  head 


URSULE  MIROUET  177 

caused  by  the  jolting;  the  cap  was  crumpled,  turned 
up;  the  unrolled  plaits  fell  on  both  sides  of  her 
face,  flushed  with  the  heat  of  the  carriage ;  but,  in 
this  situation,  which  would  be  dreadful  for  wo- 
men who  depend  upon  toilette,  youth  and  beauty 
triumph.  Innocence  always  enjoys  good  sleep.  The 
half-parted  lips  showed  pretty  teeth,  the  loosened 
shawl  disclosed,  without  offence  to  Ursule,  under 
the  folds  of  a  colored  muslin  gown,  all  the  grace  of 
her  body.  In  short,  the  purity  of  this  virgin  soul 
shone  in  this  physiognomy  and  was  seen  to  all  the 
better  advantage  in  that  no  other  expression  dis- 
turbed it  Old  Minoret,  waking,  replaced  his 
daughter's  head  in  the  corner  of  the  carriage  so  that 
she  could  be  more  comfortable;  she  let  him  do  as 
he  pleased  without  noticing  it,  so  soundly  was  she 
sleeping  after  all  the  nights  spent  in  thinking  over 
Savinien's  misfortune. 

"Poor  little  thing!"  he  said  to  his  neighbor,  "she 
sleeps  like  the  child  that  she  is." 

"You  must  be  proud  of  her,"  rejoined  Savinien, 
"for  she  seems  to  be  as  good  as  she  is  beautiful." 

"Ah!  she  is  the  joy  of  the  house.  Were  she  my 
daughter  I  could  not  love  her  more.  She  will  be 
sixteen  on  the  fifth  of  February  next.  God  grant 
that  I  may  live  long  enough  to  marry  her  to  a  man 
who  will  make  her  happy !  I  wanted  to  take  her  to 
the  play  in  Paris,  which  she  was  visiting  for  the 
first  time ;  but  she  refused,  the  cure  of  Nemours  had 
forbidden  it.  'But,'  I  said  to  her,  'when  you  are 
married  suppose  your  husband  should  wish  to  take 

12 


178  URSULE  MIROUET 

you ?'--'!  will  do  all  that  my  husband  wishes,'  she 
answered.  'If  he  asks  me  to  do  some  wrong  thing 
and  I  am  weak  enough  to  obey  him,  he  will  be 
charged  with  those  sins  before  God;  but  for  his 
sake  I  should  of  course  draw  upon  all  my  strength  to 
resist  him.'  " 

Entering  Nemours,  at  five  in  the  morning,  Ursule 
awoke,  all  abashed  at  her  untidiness  and  at  meeting 
Savinien's  look  of  admiration.  In  the  hour  that 
the  diligence  takes  in  coming  from  Bouron,  where 
it  stops  a  few  minutes,  the  young  man  had  fallen  in 
love  with  Ursule.  He  had  studied  the  sincerity  of 
this  soul,  the  beauty  of  body,  the  whiteness  of  the 
complexion,  the  delicacy  of  feature,  the  charm  of 
the  voice  which  had  uttered  the  short  and  expres- 
sive sentence  in  which  the  poor  child  told  all  while 
wishing  to  tell  nothing.  In  short,  I  do  not  know 
what  presentiment  told  him  that  Ursule  was  the 
wife  described  to  him  by  the  doctor,  whilst  fram- 
ing her  in  gold  with  these  magic  words,  "Seven  to 
eight  hundred  thousand  francs!" 

"In  three  or  four  years  she  will  be  twenty  and  I 
shall  be  twenty-seven ;  the  good  old  man  spoke  of 
tests,  of  work,  and  good  conduct!  However  cun- 
ning he  may  appear,  he  will  end  by  telling  me  his 
secret" 

The  three  neighbors  separated  opposite  their 
houses,  and  Savinien  put  coquetry  into  his  adieus 
by  casting  a  look  full  of  entreaty  at  Ursule:  Ma- 
dame de  Portendu£re  let  her  son  sleep  until  mid- 
day. In  spite  of  the  fatigue  of  the  journey  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  179 

doctor  and  Ursula  went  to  High  Mass.  Savinien's 
deliverance  and  his  return  in  the  doctor's  company 
had  explained  the  object  of  the  latter's  absence  to 
the  politicians  of  the  town  and  to  the  heirs  who  were 
assembled  in  the  market-place  in  a  conclave  similar 
to  the  one  they  had  held  there  a  fortnight  before. 
To  the  great  astonishment  of  the  groups,  on  the  way 
out  from  mass,  Madame  de  Portenduere  stopped  old 
Minoret,  who  offered  her  his  arm  and  took  her 
home.  The  old  lady  wished  to  invite  him,  as  well 
as  his  ward,  to  dinner  that  same  day,  telling  him 
that  Monsieur  le  Cure  would  be  her  other  guest 

"He  wanted  to  show  Ursule  Paris,"  said  Minoret- 
Levrault 

"Plague  take  him!  the  old  man  never  takes  a 
step  without  his  little  nurse!"  cried  Cremiere. 

"There  must  be  great  intimacy  between  them 
for  Madame  de  Portenduere  to  take  his  arm,"  said 
Massin. 

"And  you  have  never  guessed  that  your  uncle  has 
sold  his  stock  and  released  young  Portenduere!" 
cried  Goupil.  "He  refused  it  to  my  master,  but  he 
did  not  refuse  his  mistress — Ah !  you  are  done  for. 
The  viscount  will  propose  marriage  settlements  in- 
stead of  a  bond,  and  the  doctor  will  make  the  hus- 
band indebted  to  his  treasure  of  a  goddaughter  for 
all  that  it  is  necessary  to  give  in  order  to  conclude 
such  an  alliance." 

"It  might  not  be  a  mistake  to  marry  Ursule  to 
Monsieur  Savinien, "said  the  butcher.  "The  old  lady 
is  giving  a  dinner  to-night  to  Monsieur  Minoret, 


180  URSULE  MIROUET 

Tiennette  came  as  early  as  five  o'clock  to  reserve 
a  fillet  of  beef. " 

"Well,  Dionis,  this  is  a  fine  piece  of  work!"  said 
Massin,  hastening  to  meet  the  notary,  who  was 
coming  into  the  market-place. 

"Well,  what?  All  is  going  well,"  replied  the 
notary.  "Your  uncle  has  sold  his  stock,  and  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere  has  asked  me  to  call  upon  her 
to  sign  a  bond  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs  mort- 
gaged upon  her  property  and  lent  by  your  uncle." 

"Yes,  but  if  the  young  people  were  to  marry?" 

"It  is  as  if  you  were  to  tell  me  that  Goupil  was 
my  successor,"  replied  the  notary. 

"The  two  things  are  not  impossible, "  said  Goupil. 

Upon  her  return  from  mass,  the  old  lady  sent 
word  to  her  son  by  Tiennette  to  come  to  see  her. 

This  little  house  had  three  rooms  on  the  first  story. 
Madame  de  Portenduere's  and  that  of  her  late  hus- 
band were  on  the  same  side,  separated  by  a  large 
dressing-room  lighted  by  a  borrowed  light,  and 
uniting  again  in  a  little  anteroom  opening  upon  the 
staircase.  The  window  of  the  other  room,  occu- 
pied at  all  times  by  Savinien,  looked  out,  as  did 
his  father's,  on  the  road.  The  staircase  extended 
behind,  in  such  a  way  as  to  provide  this  room  with 
a  small  study  lighted  on  the  side  of  the  courtyard  by 
a  round  window.  Madame  de  Portenduere's  room, 
the  gloomiest  in  the  whole  house,  looked  out  upon 
the  courtyard;  but  the  widow  passed  her  days  in 
the  parlor  on  the  ground  floor,  communicating  by  a 
corridor  with  the  kitchen,  which  was  built  at  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  l8l 

bottom  of  the  courtyard ;  so  that  this  parlor  served 
both  as  salon  and  dining-room.  The  room  of 
the  late  Monsieur  de  Portenduere  remained  in  the 
same  state  as  on  the  day  of  his  death ;  the  deceased 
only  was  missing.  Madame  de  Portenduere  had 
made  the  bed  herself,  placing  on  it  her  husband's 
naval  uniform,  sword,  red  ribbon,  orders  and  hat. 
The  gold  snuff-box  from  which  the  viscount  had 
taken  a  last  pinch  was  on  the  pedestal,  with  his 
prayer-book,  watch  and  the  cup  from  which  he  had 
drunk.  His  white  hair,  framed  and  arranged  in  a 
single  lock,  hung  over  the  crucifix  with  its  holy 
water  font  in  the  alcove.  In  short,  the  knickknacks 
which  he  used,  his  newspapers,  furniture,  the  Dutch 
spittoon,  his  field-glass  hanging  up  over  the  mantel- 
piece, nothing  was  missing.  The  widow  had 
stopped  the  old  timepiece  at  the  hour  of  his  death, 
which  was  thus  indicated  for  all  time.  One  could 
still  smell  the  powder  and  snuff  of  the  deceased. 
The  hearth  was  as  he  had  left  it  To  go  in  there 
was  to  see  him  again  in  meeting  with  all  the  things 
that  told  of  his  habits.  His  great  gold-headed  cane 
remained  where  he  had  placed  it,  together  with  his 
thick  doeskin  gloves  close  by.  On  a  bracket  shone 
a  coarsely  carved  gold  vase,  worth  a  thousand 
crowns,  presented  to  him  by  Havanna,  which,  at  the 
time  of  the  American  War  of  Independence,  he  de- 
fended from  an  attack  of  the  English  whilst  fighting 
against  a  superior  force,  after  having  safely  brought 
into  port  the  convoy  he  was  protecting.  As  a  re- 
ward, the  King  of  Spain  had  made  him  a  Chevalier 


182  URSULE  MIROUET 

of  his  orders.  Raised  for  this  feat  to  the  rank  of 
commodore  at  the  first  promotion,  he  received  the 
red  ribbon.  Sure  then  of  the  first  vacancy,  he  mar- 
ried his  wife,  who  had  two  hundred  thousand  francs. 
But  the  Revolution  prevented  promotion,  and  Mon- 
sieur de  Portenduere  emigrated. 

"Where  is  my  mother?"  said  Savinien  to  Tien- 
nette. 

"She  is  waiting  for  you  in  your  father's  room," 
replied  the  old  Breton  servant 

Savinien  could  not  suppress  a  thrill.  He  knew 
the  rigidity  of  his  mother's  principles,  her  creed  of 
honor,  her  loyalty,  her  faith  in  the  nobility,  and  he 
foresaw  a  scene.  And  so  he  went  as  if  to  an  as- 
sault, his  heart  beating,  his  face  almost  pale.  In 
the  half-light  filtering  through  the  blinds,  he  saw  his 
mother,  dressed  in  black,  wearing  a  solemn  air  be- 
fitting this  chamber  of  the  dead. 

"Monsieur  le  Vicomte,"  she  said,  when  she  saw 
him,  rising  and  seizing  his  hand  to  lead  him  beside 
the  paternal  bed,  "there  your  father  expired,  a  man 
of  honor,  dying  without  a  single  self-reproach.  His 
spirit  is  there.  He  must  indeed  have  lamented  up 
there  at  seeing  his  son  sullied  by  an  imprisonment  for 
debt  Under  the  ancient  monarchy,  you  might  have 
been  spared  this  mud-stain  through  alettre  de  cachet 
and  by  being  shut  up  for  a  few  days  in  one  of  the 
State  prisons.  But,  at  length,  here  you  are  before 
your  father,  who  hears  you.  You  who  know  all 
that  you  did  before  going  into  this  ignoble  prison, 
can  you  swear  to  me  before  this  shadow  and  before 


URSULE  MIROUET  183 

God,  who  sees  all,  that  you  have  never  committed 
any  dishonorable  action,  that  your  debts  were  the 
result  of  youthful  impulse,  and  that,  finally,  your 
honor  is  unsullied?  If  your  blameless  father  were 
there,  alive,  in  this  armchair,  if  he  asked  you  for 
an  account  of  your  conduct,  after  having  listened  to 
you,  would  he  embrace  you?" 

"Yes,  mother,"  said  the  young  man,  with  respect- 
ful seriousness. 

She  then  opened  her  arms  and  pressed  her  son  to 
her  heart  while  shedding  a  few  tears. 

"Then  let  us  forget  it  all,"  she  said,  "it  is  only  a 
little  money  the  less;  I  will  pray  God  that  we  may 
recover  it,  and,  since  you  are  still  worthy  of  your 
name,  kiss  me,  for  I  have  suffered  much!" 

"I  swear,  my  dear  mother,"  he  said,  stretching 
out  his  hand  over  the  bed,  "never  again  to  give  you 
the  least  trouble  of  this  sort,  and  to  do  all  I  can  to 
atone  for  my  early  shortcomings." 

"Come  to  breakfast,  my  child,"  she  said,  leaving 
the  room. 

If  the  laws  of  the  stage  are  to  be  applied  to  this 
story,  Savinien's  arrival,  by  introducing  to  Nemours 
the  only  character  yet  wanting  amongst  those  who 
are  to  figure  in  this  little  drama,  here  brings  the  pro- 
logue to  an  end. 


PART  SECOND 


(185) 


PART  SECOND 
THE  MINORET  INHERITANCE 


The  action  commenced  with  an  arrangement  so 
often  employed  in  ancient  as  well  as  in  modern 
literature,  that  nobody  would  have  believed  in  its 
effects,  in  1829,  had  it  not  been  a  question  of  an  old 
Bretonne,  a  Kergarouet,  a  refugee !  But,  let  us  hasten 
to  acknowledge,  that  in  1829,  the  nobility  had  recov- 
ered in  morals  a  little  of  the  ground  lost  in  politics. 
Moreover,  the  feeling  which  governs  the  relatives 
from  the  moment  there  is  a  question  of  matrimonial 
relations  is  an  imperishable  feeling,  very  closely 
bound  up  in  the  existence  of  civilized  society  and 
imbibed  into  the  family  spirit.  It  prevails  in  Ge- 
neva as  in  Vienna,  as  in  Nemours,  where  Zelie  Lev- 
rault  but  lately  refused  her  consent  to  her  son's 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  a  bastard.  Never- 
theless, all  social  law  has  its  exceptions.  And  so 
Savinien  was  considering  how  to  bend  his  mother's 
pride  before  Ursule's  innate  nobleness.  The  strug- 
gle began  on  the  spot.  As  soon  as  Savinien  was 


1 88  URSULE  MIROUET 

seated  at  table,  his  mother  told  him  of  the  horrible 
letters,  according  to  her,  that  the  Kergarouets  and 
the  Portendueres  had  written  to  her. 

"There  is  no  more  family  nowadays,  mother," 
answered  Savinien,  "there  are  only  individuals! 
The  nobles  are  no  longer  a  solid  party.  To-day  no 
one  asks  you  if  you  are  a  Portenduere,  if  you  are 
brave,  if  you  are  a  statesman ;  everybody  asks  you, 
'What  taxes  do  you  pay?'  " 

"Arid  the  King?"  asked  the  old  lady. 

"The  King  is  caught  between  the  two  chambers 
like  a  man  between  his  lawful  wife  and  his  mis- 
tress. And  so  I  too  must  marry  a  rich  girl,  no 
matter  what  family  she  belongs  to,  a  peasant's 
daughter,  if  she  has  a  dowry  of  a  million  and  if  she 
is  sufficiently  well  educated,  that  is  to  say,  if  she 
comes  from  a  school.'  " 

"That  is  another  thing!"  said  the  old  lady. 

Savinien  frowned  at  hearing  these  words.  He 
knew  this  granite  will,  called  Breton  obstinacy,  for 
which  his  mother  was  well-known,  and  he  wanted  at 
once  to  know  her  opinion  about  this  delicate  matter. 

"So  then,"  he  said,  "if  I  were  to  love  a  young 
girl,  like  our  neighbor's  ward,  for  instance  little 
Ursule,  you  would  oppose  my  marriage?" 

"As  long  as  I  live,"  she  said.  "After  my  death, 
you  alone  will  be  responsible  for  the  honor  and 
blood  of  the  Portendueres  and  the  Kergarouets." 

"Then  you  would  let  me  die  of  hunger  and  despair 
for  the  sake  of  an  idle  fancy  which  nowadays  only 
becomes  a  reality  through  the  lustre  of  wealth  ?" 


URSULE  MIROUET  189 

"You  would  serve  France  and  trust  in  God!" 

"You  would  postpone  my  happiness  until  after 
your  death?" 

"It  would  be  horrible  of  you,  that's  all." 

"Louis  XIV.  nearly  married  the  niece  of  Mazarin, 
a  parvenu." 

"Mazarin  himself  opposed  it" 

"And  Scarron's  widow?" 

"She  was  a  d'Aubigne!  Besides,  the  marriage 
was  secret.  But  I  am  very  old,  my  son,"  she  said, 
tossing  her  head.  "When  I  am  no  more,  you  will 
marry  as  you  please." 

Savinien  both  loved  and  respected  his  mother; 
he  immediately,  but  silently,  opposed  the  old  Ker- 
garouet's  obstinacy  with  an  equal  stubbornness,  and 
resolved  never  to  have  any  other  wife  than  Ursule, 
who,  by  this  opposition,  as  always  happens  in  sim- 
ilar occurrences,  acquired  the  merit  of  a  forbidden 
thing. 

When,  after  vespers,  Doctor  Minoret  and  Ursule, 
dressed  in  white  and  pink,  entered  this  chilly  parlor, 
the  child  was  seized  with  nervous  trembling  as  if 
she  were  in  the  presence  of  the  Queen  of  France, 
and  had  some  favor  to  ask  of  her.  Since  her  ex- 
planation with  the  doctor,  this  little  house  had  as- 
sumed the  proportions  of  a  palace,  and  the  old  lady 
all  the  social  weight  that  a  duchess  must  have  had 
in  the  middle  ages,  in  the  eyes  of  a  bondsman's 
daughter.  Never  had  Ursule  so  desperately  com- 
pared as  at  this  moment  the  distance  that  divided  a 
Vicomte  de  Portenduere  from  the  daughter  of  a 


icp  URSULE  MIROUET 

bandmaster,  once  a  singer  at  the  Italiens,  an  organ- 
ist's natural  son,  and  her  existence  depended  upon 
a  doctor's  kindness. 

"What  is  the  matter,  my  child  ?"  said  the  old  lady, 
making  her  sit  down  beside  her. 

"Madame,  I  am  confused  at  the  honor  you  deign 
to  show  me — " 

"Eh!  little  one,"  replied  Madame  de  Portenduere 
in  her  most  sour  tone,  "I  know  how  much  your 
guardian  loves  you  and  I  want  to  please  him,  for  he 
brought  me  back  the  prodigal  son." 

"But,  my  dear  mother,"  said  Savinien,  wounded 
to  the  heart  at  seeing  Ursule's  quick  flush  and  the 
terrible  contraction  with  which  she  repressed  her 
tears,  "even  were  we  under  no  obligation  to  Mon- 
sieur le  Chevalier  Minoret,  it  seems  to  me  that  we 
could  always  feel  happy  at  the  pleasure  mademoi- 
selle gives  us  by  accepting  your  invitation." 

And  the  young  nobleman  squeezed  the  doctor's 
hand  significantly,  adding: 

"You  wear,  monsieur,  the  order  of  Saint-Michel, 
the  oldest  order  in  France  and  that  always  confers 
nobility." 

Ursule's  exceeding  beauty,  to  which  her  almost 
hopeless  love  had  for  several  days  lent  that  depth 
which  great  painters  have  imparted  to  those  of  their 
portraits  in  which  the  soul  is  markedly  conspicuous, 
had  suddenly  struck  Madame  de  Portenduere,  whilst 
causing  her  to  suspect  an  ambitious  calculation 
beneath  the  doctor's  generosity.  And  so  the  sen- 
tence which  Savinien  had  then  answered  was  said 


URSULE  MIROUET  19! 

with  an  intention  which  wounded  the  doctor  in  all 
that  he  held  most  dear;  but  he  could  not  suppress 
a  smile  at  hearing  himself  called  Chevalier  by 
Savinien,  and  recognized  in  this  exaggeration  the 
audacity  of  lovers  who  never  flinch  before  any 
ridicule. 

"The  order  of  Saint-Michel,  to  obtain  which  so 
many  follies  were  formerly  committed,  has  gone 
out,  Monsieur  le  Vicomte,"  replied  the  former  royal 
physician,  "as  so  many  privileges  have  gone  out! 
Nowadays  it  is  only  given  to  doctors  and  poor 
artists.  Therefore  kings  have  done  well  to  com- 
bine it  with  that  of  Saint-Lazare,  a  saint  who  was, 
I  believe,  a  poor  devil  restored  to  life  by  a  miracle! 
On  that  score,  the  order  of  Saint-Michel  and  Saint- 
Lazare  should  be,  for  us,  a  symbol." 

After  this  reply,  which  was  tinged  with  both 
mockery  and  dignity,  silence  reigned  without  any- 
body trying  to  break  it,  and  it  was  becoming  irk- 
some, when  someone  knocked. 

"Here  is  our  dear  cure,"  said  the  old  lady,  rising, 
leaving  Ursule  alone,  and  advancing  to  meet  the 
Abbe  Chaperon,  an  honor  she  had  shown  to  neither 
Ursule  nor  the  doctor. 

The  old  man  smiled  in  looking  alternately  at  his 
ward  and  Savinien.  To  complain  of  Madame  de 
Portenduere's  manner  or  to  take  offence  at  it  was  a 
reef  upon  which  a  small-minded  man  would  have 
run  aground;  but  Minoret  had  learnt  too  much  not 
to  avoid  it;  he  began  to  chat  with  the  viscount  of 
the  danger  Charles  X.  was  running,  after  having 


192  URSULE  MIROUET 

entrusted  the  management  of  his  policy  to  the 
Prince  de  Polignac.  When  time  enough  had  elapsed 
in  talking  over  matters  for  the  doctor  to  have  no 
appearance  of  revenging  himself,  he  presented  the 
old  lady,  almost  jestingly,  with  the  notes  of  pro- 
ceedings and  the  receipted  bills  that  verified  the 
account  made  by  his  notary. 

"Has  my  son  acknowledged  it?"  she  said,  giving 
Savinien  a  look  which  he  answered  by  a  bow  of  the 
head.  "Well,  then,  that  returns  to  Dionis,"  she 
added,  pushing  away  the  papers  and  treating  this 
matter  with  the  scorn  that  in  her  eyes  money  de- 
served. 

To  disparage  wealth  was,  in  Madame  de  Porten- 
du£re's  opinion,  to  exalt  the  nobility  and  rob  the 
bourgeoisie  of  its  importance.  A  few  minutes  after, 
Goupil  came,  on  behalf  of  his  employer,  to  ask 
for  the  accounts  between  Savinien  and  Monsieur 
Minoret 

"And  why?"  said  the  old  lady. 

"To  form  the  basis  of  the  bond;  there  is  no  pay- 
ment in  specie,"  replied  the  head  clerk,  casting 
impudent  looks  around  him. 

Ursule  and  Savinien,  who  for  the  first  time  ex- 
changed glances  with  this  horrible  person,  experi- 
enced the  same  sensation  that  is  caused  by  a  toad, 
but  aggravated  by  a  sinister  presentiment.  Both 
had  that  indefinable,  confused  vision  of  the  future, 
which  is  nameless,  but  which  could  be  explained 
as  an  action  of  the  inner  being  of  which  the  Swe- 
denborgian  had  spoken  to  the  doctor.  The  conviction 


URSULE  MIROUET  193 

that  this  venomous  Goupil  would  be  fatal  to  them 
made  Ursule  tremble;  but  she  recovered  from  her 
trouble  by  feeling  an  unspeakable  pleasure  in  seeing 
Savinien  sharing  her  emotion. 

"He  is  not  handsome,  Monsieur  Dionis's  clerk!" 
said  Savinien  when  Goupil  had  shut  the  door. 

"And  what  does  it  matter  whether  those  people 
are  handsome  or  ugly?' 'said  Madame  de  Porten- 
duere. 

"I  do  not  owe  him  a  grudge  for  his  ugliness," 
rejoined  the  cure,  "but  for  his  malice,  which  is  un- 
bounded; there  is  villainy  in  it" 

In  spite  of  his  desire  to  be  pleasant,  the  doctor 
became  stately  and  cold.  The  two  lovers  were 
uneasy.  But  for  the  good  nature  of  the  Abbe 
Chaperon,  whose  gentle  gaiety  enlivened  the  din- 
ner, the  situation  of  the  doctor  and  his  ward  would 
have  been  almost  intolerable.  At  dessert,  seeing 
Ursule  turn  pale,  he  said: 

"If  you  do  not  feel  well,  my  child,  you  have  only 
to  cross  the  road." 

"What  is  it,  my  love?"  said  the  old  lady  to  the 
young  girl. 

"Alas!  madame,"  rejoined  the  doctor,  severely, 
"her  soul  is  chilled,  accustomed  as  she  is  to  meet 
nothing  but  smiles." 

"A  very  bad  education,  Monsieur  le  Docteur," 
said  Madame  de  Portenduere.  "Is  it  not  so,  Mon- 
sieur leCure?" 

"Yes,  madame,"  rejoined  Minoret  giving  the  cure 
a  look  which  silenced  him.  "I  see  that  I  have  made 
13 


194  URSULE  MIROUET 

life  impossible  for  this  angelic  nature,  if  she  had  to 
go  out  into  the  world;  but  I  shall  not  die  without 
having  secured  her  from  coldness,  indifference  and 
hatred." 

"Godfather! — I  beg  of  you — enough.  I  do  not 
suffer  here,"  she  said,  braving  Madame  de  Porten- 
duere's  look  rather  than  give  too  much  meaning  to 
her  words  by  looking  at  Savinien. 

"I  do  not  know,  madame,"  then  said  Savinien  to 
his  mother,  "whether  Mademoiselle  Ursule  suffers, 
but  I  know  that  you  torture  me." 

Upon  hearing  this  remark  forced  from  this  gen- 
erous young  man  by  his  mother's  manners,  Ursule 
turned  pale  and  begged  Madame  de  Portenduere  to 
excuse  her ;  she  rose,  took  her  guardian's  arm,  curt- 
sied, went  out,  returned  home,  hastily  rushed  into 
her  godfather's  salon,  where  she  sat  down  near  the 
piano,  buried  her  head  in  her  hands  and  burst  into 
tears. 

"Why  did  you  not  leave  the  guidance  of  your 
feelings  to  my  old  experience,  cruel  child  ?"  cried  the 
doctor  in  despair.  "The  nobility  never  think 
themselves  indebted  to  us  bourgeois.  By  serving 
them,  we  do  our  duty,  that  is  all.  Besides,  the  old 
lady  saw  that  Savinien  was  looking  at  you  with 
pleasure,  she  is  afraid  that  he  may  love  you." 

"After  all,  he  is  saved!"  she  said,  "but  to  try  to 
humiliate  a  man  like  you — " 

"Wait  for  me,  little  one." 

When  the  doctor  returned  to  Madame  de  Porten- 
duere's  he  found  Dionis  there,  accompanied  by 


URSULE  MIROUET  195 

Messieurs  Bongrand  and  Levrault,  the  mayor,  the 
witnesses  required  by  law  for  the  validity  of  deeds 
drawn  up  in  parishes  where  there  is  only  one 
notary.  Minoret  took  Monsieur  Dionis  aside  and 
whispered  a  word  in  his  ear,  after  which  the  notary 
read  out  the  acknowledgment;  in  it  Madame  de 
Portenduere  was  to  give  a  mortgage  on  all  her 
property  to  the  extent  of  repaying  the  hundred 
thousand  francs  the  doctor  had  lent  the  viscount,  and 
the  interest  was  stipulated  at  five  per  cent  At  the 
reading  of  this  clause,  the  cure  looked  at  Minoret, 
who  answered  the  abbe  by  a  slight  nod  of  approval. 
The  poor  priest  went  to  whisper  a  few  words  to  his 
penitent,  to  which  she  replied,  half-aloud: 

"I  will  not  be  under  any  obligation  to  those  peo- 
ple." 

"My  mother,  monsieur,  leaves  me  the  best  part," 
said  Savinien  to  the  doctor,  "she  will  return  you 
all  the  money,  and  entrusts  the  gratitude  to  me." 

"But  you  will  have  to  find  eleven  thousand  francs 
the  first  year,  on  account  of  the  costs  of  the  deed," 
rejoined  the  cure. 

"Monsieur,"  said  Minoret  to  Dionis,  "as  Mon- 
sieur and  Madame  de  Portenduere  are  unable  to  pay 
the  registration,  add  the  costs  of  the  deed  to  the 
capital,  I  will  pay  them." 

Dionis  made  some  references,  and  the  capital  was 
then  fixed  at  one  hundred  and  seven  thousand  francs. 
When  all  was  signed,  Minoret  pleaded  fatigue  as  an 
excuse  for  retiring  at  the  same  time  as  the  notary 
and  the  witnesses. 


196  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Madame,"  said  the  cure,  who  alone  remained 
with  the  viscount,  "why  wound  that  excellent  Mon- 
sieur Minoret,  who  has  nevertheless  saved  you  at 
least  twenty-five  thousand  francs  in  Paris,  and  who 
has  had  the  delicacy  to  leave  your  son  twenty  thou- 
sand for  his  debts  of  honor?" 

"Your  Minoret  is  a  sneak,"  she  said,  taking  a 
pinch  of  snuff,  "he  knows  very  well  what  he  is 
about" 

"My  mother  thinks  that  he  wants  to  force  me  to 
marry  his  ward  by  gobbling  up  our  farm,  as  if  a  Por- 
tenduere,  son  of  a  Kergarouet,  could  be  forced  to 
marry  against  his  will." 

An  hour  afterward,  Savinien  called  at  the 
doctor's,  where  the  heirs  chanced  to  be,  brought 
there  by  curiosity.  The  young  viscount's  appear- 
ance produced  a  sensation  that  was  all  the  keener 
as,  in  each  of  the  company,  it  roused  different 
emotions.  Mesdemoiselles  Cremiere  and  Massin 
whispered  while  looking  at  Ursule,  who  was  blush- 
ing. The  mothers  said  to  Desire  thatGoupil  might 
be  right  with  regard  to  this  marriage.  The  eyes  of 
all  present  then  turned  upon  the  doctor,  who  did  not 
rise  to  receive  the  nobleman,  but  was  pleased  to 
greet  him  with  an  inclination  of  the  head  without 
leaving  the  dice-box,  for  he  was  playing  a  game  of 
backgammon  with  Monsieur  Bongrand.  The  doctor's 
coolness  surprised  everybody. 

"Ursule,  my  child,"  he  said,  "give  us  a  little 
music." 

Seeing  the  young  girl,  happy  to  be  noticed,  fly  to 


URSULE  MIROUET  197 

the  instrument  and  begin  rummaging  the  volumes 
bound  in  green,  the  heirs  accepted  the  torture  and 
silence  which  were  about  to  be  inflicted  upon  them, 
with  demonstrations  of  pleasure,  so  anxious  were 
they  to  know  what  was  hatching  between  their 
uncle  and  the  Portendueres. 

It  often  happens  that  a  piece,  poor  in  itself,  but 
played  by  a  young  girl  under  the  influence  of  deep 
feeling,  makes  more  impression  than  a  grand  over- 
ture pompously  rendered  by  a  skilled  orchestra. 
In  all  music,  besides  the  composer's  idea,  there 
exists  the  soul  of  the  player,  who,  through  a  license 
acquired  only  in  this  art,  may  give  meaning  and 
poetry  to  phrases  that  have  no  great  value.  Chopin 
to-day  proves  the  truth  of  this  fact  on  the  thank- 
less piano,  as  has  been  already  demonstrated  by 
Paganini  on  the  violin.  This  grand  genius  is  not 
so  much  a  musician  as  a  soul  that  becomes  alive 
and  which  would  transmit  itself  through  every  kind 
of  music,  even  through  simple  harmonies.  From 
her  sublime  and  perilous  organization  Ursule  be- 
longed to  this  school  of  rare  genius;  but  old 
Schmucke,  the  master  who  used  to  come  every  Sat- 
urday, and  who,  during  Ursule's  stay  in  Paris,  saw 
her  every  day,  had  brought  his  pupil's  talent  to 
the  height  of  its  perfection.  Rousseau's  Dream,  the 
piece  chosen  by  Ursule,  one  of  the  youthful 
compositions  of  Herold,  is,  moreover,  not  lacking 
in  a  certain  depth  which  can  be  developed  in  the 
playing;  she  threw  into  it  the  feelings  that  were 
agitating  her  and  thoroughly  justified  the  title  of 


IQ8  URSULE  MIROUET 

caprice  that  this  fragment  bears.  By  a  touch  both 
sweet  and  dreamy,  her  soul  was  speaking  to  the 
young  man's  soul  and  enwrapt  it  with  almost  vis- 
ible ideas  as  with  a  cloud.  Seated  at  the  end  of 
the  piano,  his  elbow  leaning  upon  the  lid  and  his 
head  in  his  left  hand,  Savinien  was  admiring  Ur- 
sule,  whose  eyes,  fixed  upon  the  woodwork,  seemed 
to  be  searching  into  a  mysterious  world.  One 
might  have  fallen  deeply  in  love  for  less.  Genu- 
ine feeling  has  its  magnetism,  and  Ursule  wanted 
in  some  way  to  show  her  mind,  as  a  coquette 
adorns  herself  in  order  to  please.  So  Savinien 
penetrated  into  this  delicious  kingdom,  led  away 
by  the  heart,  that,  to  interpret  itself,  borrowed  the 
power  of  the  only  art  which  speaks  to  thought 
by  thought  itself,  without  the  help  of  words,  color 
or  form.  Sincerity  has  the  same  power  over  man 
as  childhood,  it  has  the  same  charm  and  the  same 
irresistible  fascination;  now  Ursule  had  never  been 
more  sincere  than  at  this  moment  when  she  was 
just  beginning  a  new  life.  The  cure  came  to 
tear  the  nobleman  from  his  dream  by  asking  him 
to  make  the  fourth  at  whist.  Ursule  continued 
playing,  the  heirs  left,  with  the  exception  of 
Desire,  who  was  trying  to  find  out  the  inten- 
tions of  his  great-uncle,  of  the  viscount  and  of 
Ursule. 

"You have  as  much  talent  as  soul,  mademoiselle," 
said  Savinien  when  the  young  girl  shut  her  piano 
to  come  and  sit  beside  her  godfather.  "Who  is 
your  master?" 


URSULE  MIROUET  199 

"A  German,  living  quite  close  to  the  Rue  Dau- 
phine,  on  the  Quai  Conti, "  said  the  doctor.  "Had 
he  not  given  Ursule  a  lesson  every  day  during 
our  visit  to  Paris,  he  would  have  come  this  morn- 
ing." 

"He  is  not  only  a  great  musician,"  said  Ursule, 
"but  an  adorably  simple  man." 

"The  lessons  must  be  very  expensive!"  cried 
Desire. 

The  players  exchanged  an  ironical  smile.  When 
the  game  was  finished,  the  doctor,  who  had  been 
gloomy  up  till  then,  assumed,  in  looking  at  Savi- 
nien,  the  look  of  a  man  who  is  grieved  at  having  to 
fulfil  an  obligation. 

"Monsieur,"  he  said  to  him,  "I  am  very  grateful 
for  the  feeling  that  has  led  you  to  pay  me  so  prompt 
a  visit;  but  your  mother  attributes  very  ignoble 
after-thoughts  to  me,  and  I  should  be  giving  her  the 
right  to  a  genuine  belief  in  them  did  I  not  beg  you 
never  to  come  again  to  see  me,  in  spite  of  the  honor 
your  visits  do  me  and  of  the  pleasure  I  should  have 
in  cultivating  your  society.  My  honor  and  my  peace 
require  that  all  neighborly  relations  should  cease 
between  us.  Tell  your  mother  that,  if  I  do  not  beg 
her  to  do  us  the  honor,  my  ward  and  I,  of  accepting 
an  invitation  to  dinner  on  Sunday  next,  it  is  because 
of  the  certainty  I  have  that  she  would  be  indisposed 
on  that  day." 

The  old  man  held  out  his  hand  to  the  young  vis- 
count, who  pressed  it  affectionately  and  said : 

"You  are  right,  monsieur!" 


200  URSULE  MIROUET 

Then  he  withdrew,  but  not  without  making  a 
bow  to  Ursule,  a  bow  that  expressed  melancholy 
rather  than  disappointment 

Desire  left  at  the  same  time  as  the  nobleman; 
but  he  found  it  impossible  to  exchange  a  word  with 
him,  as  Savinien  rushed  home. 


For  two  days,  the  disagreement  between  the  Por- 
tendueres  and  Doctor  Minoret  was  the  subject  of 
conversation  for  the  heirs,  who  paid  tribute  to 
Dionis's  genius,  and  now  looked  upon  their  inherit- 
ance as  saved.  And  so,  in  a  century  in  which  ranks 
are  leveled,  in  which  the  rage  for  equality  places  all 
individuals  on  a  level  and  threatens  everything, 
even  military  subordination,  the  last  entrenchment 
of  power  in  France;  in  which,  consequently,  the  pas- 
sions have  no  other  obstacles  to  overcome  than  per- 
sonal antipathies  or  the  want  of  balance  between 
fortunes,  the  obstinacy  of  an  old  Bretonne  and  Doc- 
tor Minoret's  dignity  raised  barriers  between  these 
two  lovers  that  were  fated,  as  in  bygone  times, 
less  to  destroy  than  to  strengthen  love.  To  a  pas- 
sionate man,  every  woman  is  worth  what  she  costs 
him ;  now,  Savinien  foresaw  a  struggle,  efforts  and 
uncertainties  which  were  already  making  this 
young  girl  dear  to  him ;  he  wanted  to  win  her.  Per- 
haps our  feelings  obey  the  laws  of  Nature  upon  the 
duration  of  her  creations;  a  long  life  has  along 
childhood! 

The  next  morning,  on  rising,  both  Ursule  and 
Savinien  thought  of  the  same  thing.  This  under- 
standing would  have  given  rise  to  love  even  had  it 
not  already  been  the  most  delightful  proof.  When 
the  young  girl  slightly  parted  her  curtains  in  order 
(201) 


202  URSULE  MIROUET 

to  allow  her  eyes  the  strictly  necessary  space  for 
looking  over  at  Savinien's  house,  she  perceived  her 
lover's  face  above  the  opposite  window-fastening. 
When  one  thinks  of  the  immense  service  windows 
render  to  lovers,  it  seems  natural  enough  that  they 
should  be  made  an  object  for  taxation.  After  hav- 
ing thus  protested  against  her  godfather's  hardness 
of  heart,  Ursule  lowered  the  curtains  and  opened  her 
windows  to  shut  the  outer  blinds  through  which  she 
could  in  future  see  without  being  seen.  She  went 
up  to  her  room  at  least  seven  or  eight  times  during 
the  day  and  always  found  the  young  viscount  writ- 
ing, tearing  up  paper  and  beginning  to  write  again, 
doubtless  to  her ! 

The  next  morning,  upon  waking  Ursule,  La 
Bougival  brought  her  the  following  letter: 

TO  MADEMOISELLE  URSULE. 
"MADEMOISELLE, 

"I  do  not  delude  myself  at  all  as  to  the  mistrust  a  young 
man  must  inspire  who  has  placed  himself  in  the  position  from 
which  I  escaped  only  through  your  guardian's  intervention; 
in  future  I  must  offer  more  security  than  anyone  else;  there- 
fore, mademoiselle,  it  is  with  the  deepest  humility  that  1  throw 
myself  at  your  feet  to  confess  my  love  to  you.  This  declara- 
tion is  not  prompted  by  passion;  it  springs  from  a  certainty 
that  embraces  the  whole  life.  A  foolish  passion  for  my 
young  aunt,  Madame  de  Kergarouet,  threw  me  into  prison; 
in  the  complete  disappearance  of  my  memories,  and  of  this 
image  which  has  been  obliterated  by  yours,  will  you  not  see 
a  mark  of  sincere  love  ?  From  the  moment  I  saw  you  asleep, 
and  so  graceful  in  your  childish  slumber,  atBouron,  you  have 
occupied  my  mind  like  a  queen  who  takes  possession  of  her 


URSULE  MIROUET  203 

empire.  I  will  not  have  any  other  for  wife  than  you.  You 
have  all  the  distinction  that  I  wish  for  in  her  who  is  to  bear 
my  name.  The  education  you  have  received  and  the  dignity 
of  your  heart  place  you  on  a  level  with  the  most  exalted  posi- 
tions. But  I  mistrust  myself  too  much  to  try  to  portray  you 
to  yourself,  I  can  only  love  you.  After  having  heard  you 
yesterday  1  remembered  those  sentences  which  seem  written 
for  you : 

"  'Made  to  attract  all  hearts  and  charm  the  eye,  both  gentle 
and  intelligent,  clever  and  rational,  polished  as  if  her  life  had 
been  passed  in  courts,  simple  as  the  hermit  who  has  never 
known  the  world,  the  fire  of  her  soul  is  tempered  by  the 
divine  modesty  in  her  eyes.' 

"I  have  felt  the  value  of  this  beautiful  soul  which  reveals 
itself  in  the  slightest  things  about  you.  That  is  what  gives 
me  the  courage  to  ask  you,  if  you  do  not  yet  love  anyone,  to 
let  me  prove  to  you  by  my  attentions  and  my  conduct  that  I 
am  worthy  of  you.  It  is  a  matter  of  life  to  me;  you  cannot 
doubt  but  that  all  my  strength  will  be  employed  not  only  to 
please  you,  but  still  more  to  merit  your  esteem,  which  is 
equivalent  to  that  of  the  whole  earth.  With  this  hope, 
Ursule,  and  if  you  will  allow  me  to  worship  you  in  my  heart, 
Nemours  will  be  a  paradise  to  me,  and  the  most  difficult  under- 
takings will  only  afford  me  gratification  which  shall  be 
ascribed  to  you  as  one  ascribes  all  to  God.  Tell  me  then  that 
I  may  call  myself 

"  YOUR  SAVINIEN." 

Ursule  kissed  this  letter ;  then,  after  having  read 
it  again  and  clung  to  it  with  foolish  emotion,  she 
dressed  herself  to  go  and  show  it  to  her  godfather. 

"Mon  Dieu!  I  had  almost  left  without  saying  my 
prayers!"  she  said,  returning  to  kneel  at  her  prie- 
dieu. 


204  URSULE  MIROUET 

A  few  moments  after,  she  went  down  to  the  gar- 
den and  there  found  her  guardian,  to  whom  she  gave 
Savinien's  letter  to  read.  Both  sat  down  on  the 
bench,  under  the  clump  of  climbing  plants,  opposite 
the  Chinese  pavilion;  Ursule  waiting  for  some  re- 
mark from  the  old  man,  and  the  old  man  reflecting 
much  too  long  a  time  for  an  impatient  girl.  Finally, 
the  result  of  their  secret  interview  was  the  follow- 
ing letter,  which  the  doctor  had  doubtless  partly 
dictated : 

"MONSIEUR, 

"I  cannot  but  feel  very  much  honored  by  the  letter  in  which 
you  offer  me  your  hand;  but  at  my  age,  and  according  to  the 
laws  of  my  bringing  up,  I  was  obliged  to  show  it  to  my 
guardian,  who  is  all  the  family  I  have,  and  whom  I  love  both 
as  a  father  and  a  friend.  Here  are  the  cruel  objections  he 
has  given  me  and  which  must  serve  as  my  answer.  I  am, 
Monsieur  le  Vicomte,  a  poor  girl  whose  future  fortune  depends 
entirely,  not  only  on  my  godfather's  good  will,  but  still  more 
on  the  uncertain  measures  he  will  take  to  elude  the  ill-will  that 
his  heirs  bear  me.  Although  I  am  the  legitimate  daughter 
of  Joseph  Mirouet,  bandmaster  in  the  Forty-fifth  Infantry 
Regiment,  as  he  was  my  guardian's  natural  half-brother, 
a  suit,  although  for  no  reason,  might  be  brought  against 
a  young  girl  who  would  be  defenceless.  You  see,  monsieur, 
that  my  small  fortune  is  not  my  greatest  misfortune.  1  have 
many  reasons  for  being  humble.  It  is  for  your  sake,  not  for 
my  own,  that  I  submit  such  observations  to  you,  which  are 
often  of  Uttle  weight  with  loving,  devoted  hearts.  But  you 
must  also  consider,  monsieur,  that  if  I  did  not  lay  them  before 
you  I  should  be  suspected  of  wishing  to  make  your  tenderness 
overlook  obstacles  that  the  world,  and  your  mother  particu- 
larly, would  deem  insurmountable.  I  shall  be  sixteen  in  four 
months.  Perhaps  you  will  acknowledge  that  we  are  both  too 


URSULE  MIROUET  2OJ 

young  and  too  inexperienced  to  fight  the  miseries  of  a  life 
started  without  any  other  income  than  that  which  I  owe  to 
the  kindness  of  the  late  Monsieur  de  Jordy.  Besides,  my 
guardian  does  not  wish  me  to  marry  before  I  am  twenty. 
Who  knows  what  fate  is  reserving  for  you  during  those  four 
years,  the  best  of  your  life  ?  Do  not  blight  it  then  for  a  poor 
girl. 

"After  having  stated  to  you,  monsieur,  my  dear  guardian's 
reasons,  who,  far  from  opposing  my  happiness,  desires  to 
contribute  to  it  with  all  his  power,  and  hopes  to  see  his  pro- 
tection, which  must  soon  grow  feeble,  replaced  by  a  tender- 
ness equal  to  his  own,  it  only  remains  for  me  to  tell  you  how 
much  I  am  touched  both  by  your  offer  and  the  kind  compli- 
ments which  accompany  it.  The  prudence  which  dictates 
this  answer  comes  from  an  old  man  to  whom  life  is  well 
known  ;  but  the  gratitude  that  I  convey  to  you  is  that  of  a 
young  girl  whose  mind  knows  no  other  feeling. 

"Thus,  monsieur,  I  can  sign  myself  in  all  sincerity, 

"  Your  servant, 

"  URSULE  MIROUET." 


Savinien  did  not  reply.  Was  he  making  fresh 
attempts  with  his  mother  ?  Had  this  letter  quenched 
his  love?  A  thousand  such  questions,  all  insoluble, 
tortured  Ursule  horribly,  and,  indirectly,  the  doctor, 
who  suffered  from  his  dear  child's  slightest  agitation. 
Ursule  would  often  go  up  to  her  room  and  look  across 
at  Savinien,  whom  she  could  see,  thoughtfully  sit- 
ting at  his  table  and  constantly  turning  his  gaze 
upon  her  windows.  At  the  end  of  a  week,  not  be- 
fore that,  she  received  the  following  letter  from 
Savinien,  the  delay  being  accounted  for  by  an  in- 
crease of  love : 


206  URSULE  MIROUET 


TO  MADEMOISELLE  URSULE  MIROUET. 

"DEAR  URSULE, 

"  I  am  somewhat  of  a  Breton,  and,  once  my  mind  is  made 
up,  nothing  makes  me  change  it.  Your  guardian,  whom  may 
God  preserve  for  a  long  time  yet,  is  right ;  but  am  I  then 
wrong  to  love  you  ?  Therefore  do  I  only  wish  to  know  from 
you  whether  you  love  me.  Tell  me,  if  only  by  a  sign,  and 
then  those  four  years  will  be  the  best  of  all  my  life !  One 
of  my  friends  has  forwarded  a  letter  to  my  great-uncle,  V ice- 
Admiral  de  Kergarouet,  in  which  I  ask  his  influence  in  order 
to  enter  the  navy.  This  good  old  man,  touched  by  my  mis- 
fortunes, has  answered  to  say  that  the  king's  free  will  would 
be  thwarted  by  the  regulations,  in  case  I  should  desire  any 
rank.  Nevertheless,  after  three  months'  study  at  Toulon, 
the  minister  will  send  me  as  steerage  master ;  then,  after  a 
cruise  against  the  Algerians,  with  whom  we  are  at  war,  1  can 
undergo  an  examination  and  become  a  candidate.  Finally, 
if  I  distinguish  myself  in  the  expedition  preparing  against 
Algiers,  I  shall  certainly  be  made  a  midshipman  ;  but  in  how 
long  a  time?  Nobody  can  say.  Only,  the  regulations  will 
be  made  as  elastic  as  possible  to  reinstate  the  name  of  Por- 
tendufcre  in  the  navy.  I  must  only  obtain  you  from  your  god- 
father, I  see  that ;  and  your  respect  for  him  makes  you  still 
dearer  to  my  heart.  Before  replying  I  will  have  an  interview 
with  him  ;  upon  his  answer  depends  my  whole  future.  What- 
ever happens,  know  that,  rich  or  poor,  daughter  of  a  band- 
master, or  daughter  of  a  king,  you  are  to  me  the  woman 
whom  the  voice  of  my  heart  has  designated.  Dear  Ursule, 
we  are  living  in  an  age  in  which  the  prejudices,  which  would 
formerly  have  separated  us,  have  not  sufficient  strength  to 
prevent  our  marriage.  And  so  I  send  you  all  the  feelings  of 
my  heart,  and  to  your  uncle  the  pledges  which  will  assure 
him  of  your  happiness !  He  does  not  know  that  I  loved  you 
more  in  a  few  moments  than  he  has  loved  you  for  fifteen 
years.— Till  to-night." 


URSULE  MIROUET  207 

"Here,  godfather,"  said  Ursule,  holding  out  this 
letter  to  him  through  an  impulse  of  pride. 

"Ah!  my  child!"  cried  the  doctor,  after  having 
read  the  letter,  "I  am  even  more  pleased  than  -you 
are.  The  gentleman  has,  by  this  resolution,  re- 
deemed all  his  faults." 

After  dinner,  Savinien  called  upon  the  doctor, 
who  was  then  walking  with  Ursule  along  the  balus- 
trade of  the  terrace  by  the  river.  The  viscount 
had  received  his  clothes  from  Paris,  and  the  lover 
had  not  failed  to  enhance  his  natural  advantages  by 
as  careful  and  elegant  a  dress  as  if  it  were  a  ques- 
tion of  pleasing  the  beautiful,  proud  Comtesse  de 
Kergarouet  When  she  saw  him  coming  toward 
them  from  the  steps,  the  poor  little  thing  clasped 
her  uncle's  arm  just  as  if  she  were  holding  back 
from  a  precipice,  and  the  doctor  heard  deep,  muffled 
palpitations  which  made  him  shudder. 

"Leave  us,  my  child,"  he  said  to  his  ward,  who 
sat  down  on  the  steps  of  the  Chinese  pavilion  after 
having  allowed  Savinien  to  take  her  hand,  and  kiss 
it  respectfully. 

"Monsieur,  would  you  give  this  dear  young  girl 
to  a  naval  captain?"  said  the  young  viscount  to  the 
doctor,  in  a  low  voice. 

"No,"  said  Minoret,  smiling,  "we  might  have  to 
wait  too  long;  but — to  a  lieutenant" 

Tears  of  joy  moistened  the  young  man's  eyes, 
and  he  squeezed  the  old  man's  hand  very  affection- 
ately. 

"Then  I  will  go,"  he  replied,  "and  study  and  try 


208  URSULE  MIROUET 

to  learn  in  six  months  what  the  pupils  at  the  Naval 
College  have  learnt  in  six  years." 

"Go?"  said  Ursule,  rushing  toward  them  from 
the  steps. 

"Yes,  mademoiselle,  to  be  worthy  of  you.  And 
so,  the  more  haste  I  make,  the  more  affection  I  shall 
be  showing  you." 

"To-day  is  the  third  of  October,"  she  said,  look- 
ing at  him  with  infinite  tenderness,  "go  after  the 
nineteenth." 

"Yes,"  said  the  old  man,  "we  will  keep  the  day 
of  Saint-Savinien. " 

"Then  good-bye,"  cried  the  young  man,  "I  must 
spend  this  week  in  Paris,  and  make  the  necessary 
applications,  preparations  and  purchases  of  books 
and  mathematical  instruments,  win  the  minister's 
favor,  and  obtain  the  best  possible  terms. " 

Ursule  and  her  godfather  conducted  Savinien  as 
far  as  the  gate.  After  having  seen  him  re-enter 
his  mother's  house,  they  saw  him  come  out  accom- 
panied by  Tiennette,  who  was  carrying  a  small 
trunk. 

"Why,  if  you  are  rich,  do  you  force  him  to  serve 
in  the  navy?"  said  Ursule  to  her  godfather. 

"I  think  that  it  will  soon  be  I  who  will  have 
created  his  debts,"  said  the  doctor,  smiling.  "I  do 
not  force  him  at  all ;  but  the  uniform,  my  dear  love, 
and  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  gained  in  a 
fight,  will  efface  many  stains.  In  four  years,  he 
may  succeed  in  commanding  a  vessel,  and  that  is 
all  I  ask  of  him." 


SAVIN/EN'S  LETTER. 


Botli  sat  doivn  on  the  bench,  under  the  chimp  of 
climbing'  plants,  opposite  the  Chinese  pavilion ; 
Ursnle  waiting  for  some  remark  from  the  old  man, 
and  the  old  man  reflecting  much  too  long  a  time  for 
an  impatient  girl.  Finally,  the  result  of  their  secret 
interview  was  the  following  letter. 


URSULE  MIROUET  209 

"But  he  may  perish,"  she  said,  looking  at  the 
doctor  with  a  white  face. 

"Lovers,  like  drunkards,  have  a  god  of  their 
own,"  replied  the  doctor,  jokingly. 

During  the  night,  unknown  to  her  godfather, 
the  poor  little  thing,  with  the  help  of  La  Bougi- 
val,  cut  off  enough  of  her  long  and  beautiful  fair 
hair  to  make  a  chain;  then,  on  the  third  day, 
she  coaxed  her  music  master,  old  Schmucke,  to 
promise  to  see  that  her  hair  was  not  changed 
and  that  the  chain  was  finished  for  the  following 
Sunday.  Upon  his  return,  Savinien  informed  the 
doctor  and  his  ward  that  he  had  signed  his  en- 
gagement On  the  twenty-fifth  he  was  to  be  at 
Brest.  Invited  by  the  doctor  to  dine  on  the  eight- 
eenth, he  spent  nearly  two  whole  days  at  his 
house;  and,  in  spite  of  the  most  prudent  recom- 
mendations, the  two  lovers  could  not  help  betray- 
ing their  good  understanding  to  the  eyes  of  the 
cure,  the  justice  of  the  peace,  the  Nemours  doctor 
and  La  Bougival. 

"Children,"  said  the  old  man,  "you  are  risking 
your  happiness  by  not  keeping  the  secret  to  your- 
selves." 

At  last,  on  his  birthday,  after  mass,  during  which 
they  had  exchanged  several  looks,  Savinien,  watched 
by  Ursule,  crossed  the  road  and  came  into  the  little 
garden  where  they  both  found  themselves  almost 
alone.  The  doctor  was  indulgently  reading  his 
newspapers  in  the  Chinese  pavilion. 

"Dear  Ursule,"  said  Savinien,  "will  you  make 
14 


210  URSULE  MIROUET 

my  birthday  even  greater  than  my  mother  could  by 
giving  me  life  a  second  time — ?" 

"I  know  what  you  want  to  ask  me,"  said  Ursule, 
interrupting  him.  "Here,  this  is  my  answer" — 
she  added,  taking  the  hair  chain  from  her  apron 
pocket  and  offering  it  to  him  with  a  nervous  trem- 
bling which  betokened  unbounded  joy.  "Wear 
this,"  she  said,  "for  love  of  me!  May  my  gift 
keep  you  from  all  perils  by  reminding  you  that  my 
life  is  linked  with  yours!" 

"Ah!  the  little  minx,  she  is  giving  him  a  chain 
of  her  hair,"  the  doctor  was  saying  to  himself. 
"How  did  she  manage  it?  Cutting  her  beautiful 
fair  tresses! — would  she  then  give  him  my  blood?" 

"Would  you  think  me  very  wrong,  before  going, 
to  ask  you  to  give  me  a  solemn  promise  that  you 
will  never  have  any  other  husband  than  me?"  said 
Savinien,  kissing  the  chain,  unable  to  restrain  a  tear 
as  he  looked  at  Ursule. 

"If  I  have  not  already  told  it  to  you  too  plainly, 
I  who  went  to  contemplate  the  walls  of  Sainte- 
Pelagie  when  you  were  there,"  she  replied,  blushing, 
"I  now  repeat  it  to  you,  Savinien:  I  will  never 
love  anyone  but  you  and  will  never  belong  to  any- 
one but  you." 

At  sight  of  Ursule,  half-hidden  in  the  thicket,  the 
young  man  could  not  resist  the  pleasure  of  clasping 
her  to  his  heart  and  kissing  her  on  the  forehead ; 
but  she  gave  a  faint  cry  and  sank  upon  the  bench, 
and  when  Savinien  sat  down  beside  her,  asking  her 
pardon,  he  saw  the  doctor  standing  before  them. 


URSULE   MIROUET  211 

"My  dear  monsieur,"  he  said,  "Ursule  is  a  regular 
sensitive-plant,  that  a  harsh  word  would  kill.  With 
her,  you  ought  to  moderate  the  outburst  of  love. 
Oh!  if  your  had  loved  her  for  sixteen  years,  you 
would  have  been  content  with  her  promise,"  he 
added,  by  way  of  revenge  for  the  remark  with  which 
Savinien  had  concluded  his  last  letter. 

Two  days  after,  Savinien  left  In  spite  of  the 
letters  he  wrote  regularly  to  Ursule,  she  fell  a  prey 
to  an  apparently  causeless  illness.  Like  beautiful 
fruit  attacked  by  worms,  one  thought  was  gnawing 
at  her  heart  She  lost  appetite  and  her  beautiful 
color.  When  her  godfather  first  asked  her  what 
she  felt : 

"I  want  to  see  the  sea,"  she  said. 

"It  is  difficult  to  take  you  to  any  seaport  in 
December,"  replied  the  old  man. 

"Can  I  go  then?"  she  said. 

If  high  winds  arose,  Ursule  would  feel  greatly 
disturbed,  believing,  in  spite  of  the  learned  distinc- 
tions of  her  godfather,  the  cure  and  the  justice  of 
the  peace  between  the  winds  of  sea  and  those  of 
the  land,  that  Savinien  was  fighting  a  hurricane. 
The  justice  of  the  peace  made  her  happy  for  several 
days  with  an  engraving  of  a  midshipman  in  uni- 
form. She  would  read  the  newspapers,  fancy- 
ing they  might  give  some  news  of  the  cruise  for 
which  Savinien  had  left  She  devoured  Cooper's 
naval  romances,  and  tried  to  learn  the  naval  terms. 
These  proofs  of  fixity  of  thought,  often  pretended  by 
other  women,  were  so  natural  to  Ursule  that  she 


212  URSULE  MIROUET 

saw  each  of  Savinien's  letters  in  a  dream,  and 
never  failed  to  foretell  them  the  very  morning, 
while  relating  the  dream  that  was  their  forerunner. 

"Now,"  she  said  to  the  doctor,  the  fourth  time 
that  this  fact  took  place  without  the  cure  and  the 
doctor  being  at  all  surprised:  "I  am  easy;  no  mat- 
ter how  far  away  Savinien  may  be,  if  he  should 
be  wounded,  I  shall  feel  it  at  that  very  moment" 

The  old  doctor  remained  sunk  in  deep  medita- 
tion, which  the  justice  of  the  peace  and  the  cure 
judged  to  be  of  a  painful  nature,  from  the  expres- 
sion of  his  face. 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you?"  they  both  asked 
when  Ursule  had  left  them  alone. 

"Will  she  live?"  replied  the  old  doctor.  "Will 
such  a  delicate,  tender  flower  be  able  to  withstand 
any  heart-sorrows?" 

Nevertheless,  the  "little  dreamer,"  as  the  cure 
nicknamed  her,  was  working  ardently;  she  under- 
stood the  importance  of  a  good  education  for  a  woman 
of  the  world,  and  all  the  time  that  was  not  given  to 
singing,  the  study  of  harmony  and  composition, 
she  spent  reading  the  books  that  the  Abbe  Chaperon 
selected  for  her  from  her  godfather's  library.  Even 
whilst  leading  this  busy  life,  she  was  suffering,  but 
without  complaint  Sometimes,  she  would  remain 
whole  hours  looking  at  Savinien's  window.  On 
Sunday,  coming  from  mass,  she  would  follow  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere,  contemplating  her  with  ten- 
derness, for,  in  spite  of  her  harshness,  she  loved  her 
as  being  Savinien's  mother.  Her  piety  increased, 


URSULE  MIROUET  213 

she  went  to  mass  every  morning,  for  she  firmly 
believed  that  her  dreams  were  a  favor  from 
God.  Alarmed  at  the  ravages  caused  by  this  love- 
sickness,  on  Ursule's  birthday  the  doctor  promised 
to  take  her  to  Toulon  to  see  the  departure  of  the 
Algerian  expedition,  without  informing  Savinien, 
who  was  to  take  part  in  it.  The  justice  of  the  peace 
and  the  cure  kept  secret  the  object  of  the  doctor's 
journey,  which  appeared  to  be  undertaken  for  Ur- 
sule's health,  and  which  very  much  puzzled  the 
Minoret  heirs.  After  having  seen  Savinien  once 
more,  in  midshipman's  uniform,  after  having 
boarded  the  admiral's  beautiful  vessel,  to  which 
the  minister  had  recommended  young  Portenduere, 
Ursule,  at  her  lover's  entreaty,  went  to  breathe  the 
air  of  Nice,  and  traveled  down  the  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean  as  far  as  Genoa,  where  she  learnt 
of  the  arrival  of  the  fleet  before  Algiers  and  of  the 
good  news  of  the  landing.  The  doctor  would  have 
liked  to  continue  this  journey  through  Italy,  as 
much  to  distract  Ursule  as  in  some  degree  to  finish 
her  education  by  enlarging  her  ideas  by  the  compari- 
son of  customs  and  country,  and  by  the  charms  of 
the  land  where  dwell  the  masterpieces  of  art,  and 
where  so  many  civilizations  have  left  their  brilliant 
traces ;  but  the  news  of  the  resistance  opposed  by 
the  throne  to  the  electors  of  the  famous  Chamber  of 
1830  recalled  the  doctor  to  France,  where  he  brought 
back  his  ward  in  a  state  of  blooming  health,  and 
enriched  by  a  charming  little  model  of  the  vessel 
upon  which  Savinien  was  serving. 


The  elections  of  1830  brought  some  credit  to  the 
heirs,  who,  through  the  pains  of  Desire  Minoret  and 
Goupil,  formed  a  committee  in  Nemours  whose 
efforts  caused  the  liberal  candidate  to  be  returned 
at  Fontainebleau.  Massin  exercised  a  tremendous 
influence  over  the  country  constituents.  Five  of  the 
postmaster's  tenants  were  electors.  Dionis  repre- 
sented more  than  eleven  votes.  Through  assem- 
bling at  the  notary's  house,  Cremiere,  Massin,  the 
postmaster  and  their  adherents  ended  by  falling  into 
the  habit  of  meeting  there.  Upon  the  doctor's  re- 
turn, Dionis'  salon  had  then  become  the  camp  of 
the  heirs.  The  justice  of  the  peace  and  the  mayor, 
who  then  formed  a  league  to  resist  the  liberals 
of  Nemours,  and  who  were  beaten  by  the  oppo- 
sition in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  aristocracy 
situated  in  the  neighborhood,  were  closely  linked 
together  by  their  defeat.  When  Bongrand  and  the 
Abbe  Chaperon  told  the  doctor  the  result  of  this 
antagonism  which,  for  the  first  time,  formed  two 
parties  in  Nemours,  Charles  X.  was  leaving  Ram- 
bouillet  for  Cherbourg.  Desire  Minoret,  who  shared 
the  opinions  of  the  Paris  bar,  had  sent  to  Nemours 
for  fifteen  friends  commanded  by  Goupil,  and  whom 
the  postmaster  supplied  with  horses  to  hasten  to 
Paris,  where  they  arrived  at  Desire's  during  the 
(215) 


216  URSULE  MIROUET 

night  of  the  twenty-eighth.  Goupil  and  Desire, 
with  this  band,  co-operated  in  the  capture  of  the 
town-hall.  Desire  Minoret  was  decorated  with  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  and  appointed  substitute  of  the 
attorney  for  the  crown  at  Fontainebleau.  Goupil 
was  given  the  Cross  of  July.  Dionis  was  elected 
Mayor  of  Nemours  in  place  of  the  Sieur  Levrault, 
and  the  municipal  council  was  composed  of  Minoret- 
Levrault,  deputy;  of  Massin,  Cremiere  and  all  the 
followers  of  Dionis'  salon.  Bongrand  kept  his  place 
only  through  the  influence  of  his  son,  appointed 
attorney  for  the  Crown  at  Melun,  and  whose  mar- 
riage with  Mademoiselle  Levrault  then  appeared 
likely.  Seeing  that  the  three  per  cents  were  at  forty- 
five,  the  doctor  set  out  by  post  for  Paris ;  and  in- 
vested five  hundred  and  forty  thousand  francs  in 
certificates  to  bearer.  The  remainder  of  his  for- 
tune, which  amounted  to  about  two  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  francs,  invested  in  his  name  in 
the  same  stock,  gave  him  an  ostensible  income  of 
fifteen  thousand  francs.  He  laid  out  the  capital 
bequeathed  by  the  old  professor  to  Ursule  in  the 
same  way,  as  well  as  the  eight  thousand  francs 
yielded  by  the  interest  of  nine  years,  which  gave 
his  ward  an  income  of  fourteen  hundred  francs,  with 
the  help  of  a  small  sum  he  added  to  it  so  as  to  en- 
large this  slight  revenue.  Following  her  master's 
advice,  old  La  Bougival  had  an  income  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  francs  by  investing  five  thousand 
and  a  few  hundred  francs'  savings  in  the  same  way. 
These  prudent  speculations,  planned  between  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  217 

doctor  and  the  justice  of  the  peace,  were  accom- 
plished in  the  most  profound  secrecy  under  cover 
of  the  political  disturbances.  When  peace  was 
almost  re-established,  the  doctor  bought  a  little 
house  adjoining  his  own,  and  tore  it  down,  as 
well  as  the  wall  of  his  courtyard,  so  as  to  have 
a  coach  house  and  stable  built  on  the  ground.  To 
use  the  capital  of  a  thousand  francs'  income  to 
set  up  outhouses  seemed  madness  to  the  Minoret 
heirs.  The  so-called  madness  began  a  new  era  in 
the  doctor's  life,  for,  at  a  time  when  horses  and 
carriages  were  to  be  procured  for  almost  nothing, 
he  brought  back  from  Paris  three  superb  horses  and 
a  barouche. 

When,  in  the  beginning  of  November,  1830,  the 
old  man,  for  the  first  time,  drove  to  mass  on  a  rainy 
day,  and  got  down  to  give  his  hand  to  Ursule,  all 
the  inhabitants  rushed  into  the  market-place,  as 
much  to  see  the  doctor's  carriage  and  question  his 
coachman,  as  to  find  fault  with  his  ward,  to  whose 
excessive  ambition  Massin,  Cremiere,  the  post- 
master and  their  wives  attributed  their  uncle's 
follies. 

"The  barouche!  eh!  Massin!"  cried  Goupil, 
"your  succession  is  going  capitally,  hein?" 

"You  must  have  good  wages,  Cabirolle?"  said 
the  postmaster  to  the  son  of  one  of  his  drivers,  who 
was  standing  by  the  horses,  "for  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  you  will  not  wear  out  many  horseshoes  with  a 
man  eighty-four  years  old.  How  much  did  the 
horses  cost?" 


218  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Four  thousand  francs.  The  carriage,  although 
second-hand,  cost  two  thousand  francs ;  but  it  is  a 
handsome  one,  the  wheels  are  a  patent." 

"What  do  you  say,  Cabirolle?"  asked  Madame 
Cremiere. 

"He  says  d,  ma  tante,"  replied  Goupil,  "it  is  an 
English  idea,  and  they  invented  these  wheels. 
Here!  you  see,  nothing  can  be  seen,  it  all  fits  in, 
that's  nice,  it  does  not  get  locked,  and  there  is  no 
longer  that  horrid  end  of  square  iron  which  used  to 
go  beyond  the  axle." 

"What  rhymes  with  ma  tante  ?  "  then  said  Ma- 
dame Cremiere,  innocently. 

"What!"  said  Goupil,  "that  does  not  'tente'  you 
then?" 

"Ah!  I  understand,"  she  said. 

"Well,  no,  you  are  an  honest  woman,"  said 
Goupil,  "I  must  not  deceive  you,  the  real  word  is 
(ipatte  entre,  because  the  pin  is  hidden." 

"Yes,  madame,"  said  Cabirolle,  who  was  taken  in 
by  Goupil's  explanation,  so  seriously  had  the  clerk 
given  it 

"It  is  a  fine  carriage  all  the  same,"  cried  Cre- 
miere, "and  one  must  be  rich  to  buy  a  kind  like 
that" 

"She  is  doing  well,  the  little  one,"  said  Goupil. 
"But  she  is  right,  she  is  teaching  you  how  to  enjoy 
life.  Why  have  you  not  got  beautiful  horses  and 
carriages,  you,  Papa  Minoret?  Will  you  let  your- 
self be  humiliated?  Were  I  in  your  place  I  would 
have  a  prince's  carriage!" 


URSULE  MIROUET  219 

"See,  Cabirolle,"  saidMassin,  "is  it  the  little  one 
that  launches  our  uncle  into  these  luxuries?" 

"I  don't  know,"  replied  Cabirolle,  "but  she  is 
almost  mistress  at  home.  Master  upon  master  now 
comes  from  Paris.  They  say  she  is  going  to  study 
painting." 

"I  shall  seize  this  opportunity  to  have  my  portrait 
drawn,'1  said  Madame  Cremiere. 

In  the  provinces,  in  speaking  of  a  portrait  they 
still  say  drawn,  instead  of  to  have  a  portrait  taken. 

"And  yet  the  old  German  is  not  dismissed,"  said 
Madame  Massin. 

"He  is  there  again  to-day,"  replied  Cabirolle. 

"You  can't  have  too  much  of  a  good  thing,"  said 
Madame  Cremiere,  making  everybody  laugh. 

"Now,"  cried  Goupil,  "you  need  not  reckon  on 
the  inheritance.  Ursule  will  soon  be  seventeen, 
she  is  prettier  than  ever;  travel  improves  youth, 
and  the  little  humbug  has  got  on  the  right  side  of 
your  uncle.  Every  week  the  stage  brings  her  five 
or  six  packages,  and  dressmakers  and  milliners  come 
here  to  try  on  her  dresses  and  things.  And  so  my 
mistress  is  furious.  Wait  until  Ursule  comes  out 
and  then  look  at  her  little  shoulder  shawl,  a  real 
cashmere  at  six  hundred  francs." 

Had  a  thunderbolt  fallen  in  the  middle  of  the 
group  of  heirs  it  would  not  have  produced  more 
effect  than  these  last  words  of  Goupil,  who  rubbed 
his  hands. 

The  doctor's  old  green  salon  was  renovated  by 
an  upholsterer  from  Paris.  Judged  by  the  luxury 


220  URSULE  MIROUET 

he  was  displaying,  the  old  man  was  at  one  time 
accused  of  having  concealed  his  fortune  and  of  pos- 
sessing an  income  of  sixty  thousand  francs,  at 
another  of  spending  his  capital  to  please  Ursule.  He 
was  alternately  called  a  rich  man  and  a  libertine. 
This  remark:  "He  is  an  old  fool !"  summed  up  the 
opinion  of  the  country.  This  false  direction  of  the 
judgment  of  the  little  town  had  this  advantage,  that 
it  deceived  the  heirs,  who  did  not  at  all  suspect 
Savinien's  love  for  Ursule,  which  was  the  real  cause 
of  the  doctor's  expenditure,  as  he  delighted  to  ac- 
custom his  ward  to  her  r61e  of  viscountess,  and  who, 
with  more  than  fifty  thousand  francs  a  year,  gave 
himself  the  pleasure  of  adorning  his  idol. 

In  February,  1832,  on  Ursule's  seventeenth  birth- 
day, that  same  morning  as  she  was  getting  up,  she 
saw  Savinien,  at  his  window,  in  midshipman's 
uniform. 

"How  is  it  that  I  knew  nothing  of  it?"  she  said 
to  herself. 

Since  the  capture  of  Algiers  in  which  Savinien 
distinguished  himself  by  an  act  of  courage  which 
had  gained  him  the  cross,  the  corvette  upon  which 
he  served  having  remained  several  months  at  sea, 
he  had  found  it  absolutely  impossible  to  write  to  the 
doctor,  and  he  would  not  leave  the  service  without 
having  consulted  him.  Anxious  to  keep  such  an 
illustrious  name  in  the  navy,  the  new  government 
had  profited  by  the  July  disturbances  to  confer  the 
rank  of  midshipman  upon  Savinien.  After  having 
obtained  leave  for  a  fortnight,  the  new  midshipman 


URSULE  MIROUET  221 

arrived  from  Toulon  by  the  mail-coach  for  Ursule's 
birthday  and  at  the  same  time  to  seek  the  doc- 
tor's advice. 

"He  has  come!"  cried  the  goddaughter  rushing 
into  her  godfather's  room. 

"All  right,"  he  replied,  "I  can  guess  the  motive 
which  has  made  him  leave  the  service,  and  he  can 
now  remain  in  Nemours." 

"Ah!  it  is  my  birthday;  it  is  all  in  that  word," 
she  said,  kissing  the  doctor. 

At  a  sign  she  went  to  make  to  him,  Savinien 
came  at  once;  she  wanted  to  admire  him,  for  she 
thought  he  seemed  improved.  In  fact,  military  ser- 
vice stamps  the  gestures,  the  bearing  and  appear- 
ance of  men  with  decision  mingled  with  gravity,  an 
indefinable  uprightness  which  enables  the  most 
superficial  observer  to  recognize  a  military  man 
under  the  bourgeois  coat;  there  is  no  better  proof 
that  a  man  is  made  to  command.  Ursule  loved 
Savinien  still  better  for  it,  and  felt  a  childish  de- 
light in  walking  up  and  down  the  little  garden  on 
his  arm,  making  him  relate  the  share  he  had  had, 
in  his  character  of  naval  cadet,  in  the  capture  of 
Algiers.  Obviously,  Savinien  had  taken  Algiers. 
She  saw  everything  red,  she  said,  when  she  was 
looking  at  Savinien's  decoration.  The  doctor,  who 
was  watching  them  from  his  room  whilst  dressing, 
came  to  join  them.  Without  entirely  unbosoming 
himself  to  the  viscount,  he  then  told  him  that  in 
case  Madame  de  Portenduere  should  consent  to  his 
marriage  with  Ursule,  his  goddaughter's  fortune 


222  URSULE  MIROUET 

would  make  the  salary  from  any  rank  he  might 
attain,  superfluous. 

"Alas!"  said  Savinien,  "it  will  take  a  long  time 
to  overcome  my  mother's  opposition.  Before  my 
departure,  with  the  alternative  of  seeing  me  stay 
with  her  if  she  consented  to  my  marriage  with  Ur- 
sule,  or  of  only  seeing  me  from  time  to  time  with 
the  knowledge  that  I  was  exposed  to  the  dangers  of 
my  profession,  she  let  me  go — " 

"But,  Savinien,  we  shall  be  together,"  said 
Ursule,  taking  his  hand  and  shaking  it  half  impa- 
tiently. 

To  see  each  other,  and  never  to  part,  was  to  her 
the  whole  of  love;  she  did  not  look  beyond  that; 
and  her  pretty  gesture,  and  her  rebellious  accent 
were  expressive  of  so  much  innocence  that  Savinien 
and  the  doctor  relented.  The  resignation  was  sent 
in,  and  the  presence  of  her  fiance  gave  the  greatest 
radiance  to  Ursule's  birthday.  Several  months 
after,  toward  May,  domestic  life  at  Doctor  Minoret's 
resumed  its  tranquillity,  but  with  one  more  regular 
visitor.  The  young  viscount's  attentions  were  all 
the  more  promptly  construed  as  those  of  an  intended 
husband,  as,  whether  at  mass,  or  out  walking,  his 
and  Ursule's  manners,  although  reserved,  betrayed 
the  understanding  of  their  hearts.  Dionis  called  the 
attention  of  the  heirs  to  the  fact  that  the  old  man 
never  demanded  his  interest  from  Madame  de  Por- 
tenduere,  and  that  the  old  lady  already  owed  it 
for  three  years. 

"She  will  be  forced  to  yield,  and  consent  to  her 


URSULE  MIROUET  223 

son's  misalliance,"  said  the  notary.  "If  this  mis- 
fortune happens,  it  is  probable  that  a  large  part  of 
your  uncle's  fortune  will  serve,  according  to  Basile, 
as  an  irresistible  argument" 

The  irritation  of  the  heirs  at  finding  that  their 
uncle  preferred  Ursule  too  much  not  to  secure  her 
happiness  at  their  expense,  then  became  as  secret 
as  it  was  deep.  Meeting  every  night  since  the  July 
revolution  at  the  house  of  Dionis,they  would  there 
curse  the  two  lovers,  and  the  evening  seldom  drew  to 
a  close  without  their  having  searched,  but  vainly, 
for  means  of  thwarting  the  old  man.  Zelie,  who,  like 
the  doctor,  had  doubtless  profited  by  the  fall  in  stock 
to  advantageously  invest  her  enormous  capital,  was 
the  hardest  upon  the  orphan  girl  and  the  Porten- 
dueres.  One  night  when  Goupil,  who,  however, 
took  care  not  to  be  bored  at  these  receptions,  had 
come  to  inquire  the  affairs  of  the  town  which  were 
there  being  discussed,  Zelie  had  a  revival  of  hatred; 
in  the  morning  she  had  seen  the  doctor,  Ursule  and 
Savinien  returning  in  the  barouche  from  a  drive  in 
the  neighborhood,  in  an  intimacy  which  betrayed  all. 

"I  would  willingly  give  thirty  thousand  francs 
for  God  to  summon  our  uncle  to  Himself  before  the 
marriage  of  this  Portenduere  and  that  conceited 
little  creature  could  take  place,"  she  said. 

Goupil  accompanied  Monsieur  and  Madame  Min- 
oret  as  far  as  the  middle  of  their  big  courtyard,  and 
said,  looking  all  around  to  see  that  they  were  quite 
alone: 

"Will   you   give   me  the   means   of  buying  up 


224  URSULE  MIROUET 

Dionis's  practice,  and  I  will  break  off  Monsieur  de 
Portenduere's  marriage  with  Ursule?" 

"How?"  asked  the  giant 

"Do  you  think  I  am  fool  enough  to  tell  you  my 
plan?"  replied  the  head  clerk. 

"Well,  my  boy,  set  them  by  the  ears  and  we 
will  see,"  said  Zelie. 

"I  am  not  going  to  enter  at  all  upon  such  worries 
for  a  'we  shall  see!'  The  young  man  is  a  swag- 
gerer who  might  kill  me,  and  I  should  have  to  be 
roughshod,  and  be  his  match  with  sword  and  pistol. 
Set  me  up,  and  I  will  keep  my  word." 

"Prevent  this  marriage  and  then  I  will  set  you 
up,"  replied  the  postmaster. 

"You  have  been  nine  months  considering  whether 
you  should  lend  me  fifteen  thousand  wretched  francs 
to  buy  the  practice  of  Lecoeur,  the  attorney,  and 
do  you  expect  me  to  trust  to  this  promise?  Go, 
you  will  lose  your  uncle's  inheritance,  and  it  will 
be  a  good  job." 

"Were  it  only  a  question  of  fifteen  thousand 
francs  and  Lecceur's  practice,  it  might  be  managed," 
replied  Zelie,  "but  to  be  your  security  for  fifty 
thousand  crowns!" 

"But  I  will  pay,"  said  Goupil,  darting  a  bewitch- 
ing glance  at  Zelie  which  encountered  the  postmis- 
tress's haughty  look. 

It  was  like  poison  on  steel. 

"We  will  wait,"  said  Zelie. 

"The  evil  genius  be  with  you!"  thought  Goupil. 
"If  ever  I  get  them  in  my  power,"  he  said  to 


URSULE  MIROUET  225 

himself  as  he  went  out,  "I  will  squeeze  them  like 
lemons." 

By  cultivating  the  society  of  the  doctor,  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  and  the  cure,  Savinien  proved  the 
excellence  of  his  character  to  them.  The  young 
man's  love  for  Ursule,  so  devoid  of  all  selfishness, 
and  so  persistent,  so  keenly  interested  the  three 
friends,  that  they  no  longer  separated  these  two 
children  in  their  thoughts.  Before  long  the  mo- 
notony of  this  patriarchal  life  and  the  certainty  of  the 
lover's  future  ended  by  giving  their  affection  an 
appearance  of  fraternity.  The  doctor  often  left 
Ursule  and  Savinien  alone.  He  had  well  judged 
this  charming  young  man,  who  would  kiss  Ursule's 
hand  upon  arriving  and  would  not  have  asked  her 
for  it  when  they  were  alone,  so  much  was  he  filled 
with  respect  for  the  innocence  and  simplicity  of  this 
child,  whose  excessive  sensitiveness,  often  tested, 
had  taught  him  that  a  harsh  expression,  a  cold  look, 
or  the  alternations  of  gentleness  and  roughness 
might  kill  her.  Their  greatest  liberties  the  two 
lovers  would  be  guilty  of  in  the  presence  of  the  old 
men,  in  the  evening.  Two  years,  full  of  secret 
joys,  passed  in  this  way,  with  no  other  incident 
than  the  young  man's  futile  attempts  to  obtain  his 
mother's  consent  to  his  marriage  with  Ursule.  He 
would  sometimes  talk  for  whole  mornings  together, 
his  mother  listening  without  answering  his  argu- 
ments and  entreaties,  except  by  the  silence  of  a 
Bretonne  or  by  refusals.  At  nineteen,  Ursule, 
graceful,  an  excellent  musician  and  well-educated, 
15 


226  URSULE  MIROUET 

had  nothing  more  to  acquire;  she  was  perfect  She 
was  also  renowned  far  and  wide  for  her  beauty,  grace 
and  education.  One  day,  the  doctor  had  to  refuse 
the  Marquise  d'Aiglemont,  who  thought  of  Ursule 
for  her  eldest  son.  Six  months  later,  in  spite  of 
the  profound  secrecy  observed  by  Ursule,  the  doctor, 
and  Madame  d'Aiglemont,  Savinien  accidentally 
heard  of  this  circumstance.  Touched  by  so  much 
delicacy,  he  pleaded  this  proceeding  in  order  to 
overcome  his  mother's  obstinacy,  her  reply  being : 

"If  the  D'Aiglemonts  wish  to  make  a  bad  match, 
is  that  any  reason  why  we  should?" 

In  December,  1834,  the  pious,  good  old  man  visibly 
failed.  When  he  was  seen  coming  out  of  church, 
with  his  yellow,  shriveled  face  and  faded  eyes, 
the  whole  town  spoke  of  the  old  man's  approaching 
death,  he  being  then  eighty-eight  years  old. 

"You  will  know  how  matters  stand,"  they  said  to 
the  heirs. 

In  fact,  the  old  man's  demise  possessed  the  attrac- 
tion of  a  problem.  But  the  doctor  did  not  know  he 
was  ill,  he  labored  under  a  delusion,  and  neither 
poor  Ursule,  nor  Savinien,  nor  the  justice  of  the 
peace,  nor  the  cure,  would  through  delicacy,  en- 
lighten him  as  to  his  situation;  the  Nemours  doctor, 
who  came  to  see  him  every  night,  was  afraid  to 
prescribe  any  further.  Old  Minoret  felt  no  pain, 
he  was  gently  dying.  With  him,  the  mind  re- 
mained strong,  clear  and  powerful.  With  old  men 
thus  constituted,  the  mind  governs  the  body  and 
gives  it  strength  to  die  standing.  The  cure,  for 


URSULE  MIROUET  227 

fear  of  hastening  the  fatal  end,  excused  his  parish- 
ioner from  coming  to  hear  mass  in  church,  and 
allowed  him  to  read  the  services  at  home;  for  the 
doctor  carefully  fulfilled  all  his  religious  duties;  the 
further  he  went  toward  the  grave,  the  more  he  loved 
God.  The  eternal  light  more  and  more  explained 
to  him  difficulties  of  all  kinds.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  new  year,  Ursule  persuaded  him  to  sell  his 
carriage  and  horses,  and  to  dismiss  Cabirolle.  The 
justice  of  the  peace,  whose  anxiety  about  Ursule's 
future  was  far  from  being  quieted  by  the  old  man's 
half -confidences,  broached  the  delicate  question  of 
inheritance,  by  explaining  one  evening  to  his  old 
friend  the  necessity  of  emancipating  Ursule.  The 
ward  would  then  be  able  to  receive  a  tutelary  account 
and  come  into  possession;  which  would  operate 
to  her  advantage.  In  spite  of  this  overture,  the  old 
man,  who  however  had  already  consulted  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  did  not  at  all  entrust  him  with  the 
secret  of  his  arrangements  about  Ursule;  but  he 
adopted  the  course  of  emancipation.  The  more  the 
justice  of  the  peace  persisted  in  wishing  to  know 
the  means  his  old  friend  had  taken  to  enrich  Ursule, 
the  more  suspicious  grew  the  doctor.  At  last 
Minoret  positively  dreaded  confiding  to  the  justice 
of  the  peace  his  thirty-six  thousand  francs  of  stock 
to  bearer. 

"Why,"  said  Bongrand,  "do  you  risk  any 
chance?" 

"Between  two  chances,"  replied  the  doctor, 
"one  avoids  the  most  uncertain." 


228  URSULE  MIROUET 

Bongrand  conducted  the  matter  of  emancipation 
so  quickly  that  it  was  finished  on  the  day  Made- 
moiselle Mirouet  attained  her  twentieth  year.  This 
anniversary  was  to  be  the  old  doctor's  last  fete,  and, 
seized  no  doubt  with  a  presentiment  of  his  coming 
end,  he  celebrated  this  day  sumptuously  by  giving 
a  small  dance  to  which  he  invited  all  the  boys  and 
girls  of  the  four  families,  Dionis,  Cremi£re,  Mino- 
ret  and  Massin.  Savinien,  Bongrand,  the  cure, 
his  two  curates,  the  Nemours  doctor  and  Mesdames 
Zelie  Minoret,  Massin  and  Cremi£re,  as  well  as 
Schmucke,  were  the  guests  at  the  big  dinner  which 
preceded  the  ball. 

"I  feel  that  I  am  going,"  said  the  old  man  to  the 
notary  at  the  close  of  the  evening.  "So  I  must  beg 
you  to  come  to-morrow  to  draw  up  the  guardian's 
account  that  I  must  give  Ursule,  so  as  to  avoid  com- 
plicating my  inheritance.  Thank  God!  I  have 
not  wronged  my  heirs  of  a  farthing,  and  have 
only  disposed  of  my  income.  Messieurs  Cremiere, 
Massin,  and  Minoret,  my  nephew,  are  members  of 
the  family  council  appointed  for  Ursule,  they  will 
assist  at  this  examination  of  accounts." 

These  words,  overheard  by  Massin  and  hawked 
about  the  ballroom,  spread  joy  amongst  the  three 
families,  who  for  four  years  had  been  living  in  con- 
tinual alternations,  at  one  time  believing  themselves 
rich,  at  another  disinherited. 

"It  is  a  tongue  dying  out,"  said  Madame  Cre- 
miere. 

When,  toward  two  in  the  morning,  nobody  was 


URSULE  MIROUET  229 

left  in  the  drawing-room  but  Savinien,  Bongrand 
and  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  the  old  doctor  pointed  to 
Ursule,  charming  in  her  ball  dress,  who  was  just 
saying  good-bye  to  the  young  Mesdemoiselles  Cre- 
miere  and  Massin,  and  said: 

"It  is  to  you,  my  friends,  that  I  entrust  her!  In 
a  few  days  I  shall  no  longer  be  here  to  protect  her ; 
stand,  all  of  you,  between  her  and  the  world,  until 
she  is  married. — I  am  afraid  for  her!" 

These  words  made  a  painful  impression.  The 
account,  which  was  made  up  several  days  after- 
ward in  a  family  council,  showed  that  Doctor  Min- 
oret  was  short  ten  thousand  six  hundred  francs, 
partly  as  arrears  of  the  stock  receipt  of  fourteen 
hundred  francs  a  year,  the  acquisition  of  which  was 
accounted  for  by  the  employment  of  Captain  de 
Jordy's  legacy,  and  partly  by  the  little  capital  of 
five  thousand  francs  coming  from  gifts  that,  for 
fifteen  years,  the  doctor  had  made  to  his  ward  on 
their  respective  f£te-days  or  birthdays. 


This  authentic  rendering  of  the  account  had  been 
recommended  by  the  justice  of  the  peace,  who 
dreaded  the  effects  of  Doctor  Minoret's  death,  and 
who,  unfortunately,  was  right  The  day  following 
the  acceptance  of  the  guardian's  account  which  gave 
Ursule  ten  thousand  six  hundred  francs  and  fourteen 
hundred  francs  a  year,  the  old  man  was  seized  with 
an  attack  of  faintness  which  compelled  him  to  keep 
to  his  bed.  In  spite  of  the  secrecy  surrounding  the 
doctor's  house,  the  rumor  of  his  death  spread  over 
the  town,  where  the  heirs  ran  through  the  streets 
like  the  beads  of  a  chaplet  of  which  the  string  has 
broken.  Massin,  who  came  to  inquire,  was  told  by 
Ursule  herself  that  the  old  man  was  in  bed.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  Nemours  doctor  had  declared  that  the 
moment  at  which  Minoret  should  take  to  his  bed 
would  be  that  of  his  death.  From  that  time,  in  spite 
of  the  cold,  the  heirs  stood  in  the  streets,  in  the 
market-place  or  on  their  doorsteps,  busy  chattering 
about  this  long-expected  event,  and  watching  for  the 
moment  when  the  cure  should  carry  the  Sacrament 
to  the  old  doctor  with  all  the  array  in  use  in  pro- 
vincial towns.  And  so,  when,  two  days  after,  the 
Abbe  Chaperon,  accompanied  by  his  curate  and  the 
choir  boys,  preceded  by  the  sexton  bearing  the 
cross,  crossed  the  Grand' Rue,  the  heirs  joined  him 
in  order  to  occupy  the  house,  prevent  all  purloining 
(231) 


232  URSULE  MIROUET 

and  put  their  greedy  hands  on  presumable  treasures. 
When  the  doctor,  through  the  clergy,  perceived  his 
kneeling  heirs,  who,  far  from  praying  were  watch- 
ing him  with  eyes  as  keen  as  the  gleam  of  a  taper, 
he  could  not  restrain  a  malicious  smile.  The  cure 
turned  round,  saw  them,  and  then  said  the  prayers 
very  slowly.  The  postmaster  was  the  first  to  leave 
his  tiring  position,  his  wife  followed  him ;  Massin, 
fearing  lest  Zelie  and  her  husband  should  lay  their 
hands  on  some  trifle,  joined  them  in  the  drawing- 
room,  and  soon  all  the  heirs  were  assembled  there. 

"He  is  too  honest  a  man  to  steal  the  extreme 
unction,"  said  Cremiere,  "so  we  can  be  quite 
easy." 

"Yes,  we  shall  each  have  about  twenty  thousand 
francs  a  year,"  replied  Madame  Massin. 

"I  have  an  idea,"  said  Zelie,  "that,  for  three 
years,  he  did  not  invest  any  more;  he  loved  to 
hoard—" 

"The  treasure  is  no  doubt  in  his  cellar?"  said 
Massin  to  Cremiere. 

"Provided  that  we  find  something,"  said  Minoret- 
Levrault 

"But,  after  his  declaration  at  the  ball,"  cried  Ma- 
dame Massin,  "there  is  no  longer  any  doubt  about 
it" 

"In  any  case,"  said  Cremiere,  "how  shall  we 
manage  ?  Shall  we  share  ?  shall  we  have  an  auc- 
tion? or  shall  we  divide  by  lots?  for  after  all  we 
are  all  of  age." 

A  discussion,   growing   rapidly   more  and   more 


URSULE  MIROUET  233. 

bitter,  arose  about  the  manner  of  proceedings.  At 
the  end  of  half-an-hour,  a  noise  of  confused  voices, 
amongst  which  Zelie's  shrill  voice  could  be  dis- 
tinguished, resounded  in  the  courtyard  and  reached 
the  road. 

"He  must  be  dead,"  then  said  the  busybodies 
collected  in  the  road. 

This  uproar  reached  the  ears  of  the  doctor,  who 
heard  these  words : 

"But  the  house,  the  house  is  worth  thirty  thou- 
sand francs!  I  take  it,  I  do,  at  thirty  thousand 
francs!"  cried  or  rather  bellowed  by  Cremi£re. 

"Well,  we  will  pay  what  it  is  worth,"  sharply 
replied  Zelie. 

"Monsieur  le  Cure,"  said  the  old  man  to  the 
Abbe  Chaperon,  who  stayed  beside  his  friend  after 
having  administered  to  him,  "arrange  it  so  that  I 
can  die  in  peace.  My  heirs,  like  those  of  Cardinal 
Ximenes,  are  capable  of  pillaging  my  house  before 
my  death,  and  I  have  no  monkey  to  set  me  up  again. 
Go  and  tell  them  that  I  do  not  wish  anyone  to  re- 
main in  the  house." 

The  cure  and  the  doctor  went  down,  repeated 
the  dying  man's  order,  and  in  a  fit  of  indignation, 
added  strong  words  full  of  rebuke. 

"Madame  Bougival,"  said  the  doctor,  "shut  the 
gate  and  do  not  let  anyone  in  ;  it  seems  that  it  is 
impossible  to  die  in  peace.  You  will  prepare  poul- 
tices of  ground  mustard,  in  order  to  apply  them  to 
monsieur's  feet" 

"Your  uncle  is  not  dead,  and  may  yet  live  a  long 


234  URSULE  MIROUET 

time,"  said  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  dismissing  the 
heirs,  who  had  brought  their  children  with  them. 
He  implores  the  deepest  silence  and  will  have  no 
one  but  his  ward  near  him.  What  a  difference  be- 
tween this  young  girl's  behavior  and  yours!" 

"Old  hypocrite!"  cried  Cremiere,  "I  shall  stand 
sentry.  It  is  quite  possible  that  there  is  some  plot 
against  our  interests." 

The  postmaster  had  already  disappeared  into  the 
garden,  intending  to  watch  his  uncle  with  Ursule, 
and  to  have  himself  admitted  into  the  house  as  an 
assistant.  He  returned  stealthily  without  making 
the  least  noise  with  his  boots,  for  the  corridor  and 
stairs  were  both  carpeted.  He  was  then  able  to 
reach  the  door  of  his  uncle's  room  unheard.  The 
cure  and  the  doctor  had  gone,  La  Bougival  was  pre- 
paring the  poultices. 

"Are  we  quite  alone?"  said  the  old  man  to  his 
ward. 

Ursule  stood  on  tiptoe  to  look  into  the  court- 
yard. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  "Monsieur  le  Cure  has  shut  the 
gate  himself  in  going  out." 

"My  beloved  child,"  said  the  dying  man,  "my 
hours,  my  minutes  even,  are  numbered.  I  have  not 
been  a  physician  for  nothing;  the  doctor's  poultices 
will  keep  me  alive  till  to-night.  Do  not  cry, 
Ursule,"  he  said,  finding  himself  interrupted  by  his 
goddaughter's  tears,  "but  listen  to  me  carefully; 
it  is  a  question  of  marrying  Savinien.  As  soon  as 
La  Bougival  comes  up  with  the  poultice,  go  down  to 


URSULE  MIROUET  235 

the  Chinese  pavilion,  here  is  the  key;  raise  the 
marble  top  of  the  Boule  sideboard,  and  under  it  you 
will  find  a  sealed  letter  addressed  to  you ;  take  it, 
come  back  and  show  it  to  me,  for  I  shall  not  die 
peacefully  unless  I  see  it  in  your  hands.  When  I 
am  dead,  you  are  not  to  tell  it  at  once ;  but  send  for 
Monsieur  de  Portenduere,  you  will  read  the  letter 
together,  and  you  must  swear  to  me  in  your  name 
and  his  to  fulfil  my  last  wishes.  When  he  shall 
have  obeyed  me,  you  will  announce  my  death,  and 
the  heirs'  farce  will  begin.  God  grant  that  these 
monsters  do  not  ill-treat  you!" 

"Yes,  godfather." 

The  postmaster  did  not  listen  to  the  rest  of  the 
scene;  he  scampered  away  on  tiptoe,  remembering 
that  the  study  lock  was  on  the  side  of  the  library. 
He  had  been  present  at  the  time  of  the  discussion 
between  the  architect  and  the  locksmith,  who  de- 
clared that,  if  anyone  were  to  get  into  the  house  by 
the  window  looking  on  to  the  river,  it  would  be  more 
prudent  to  put  the  lock  on  the  side  of  the  library,  the 
study  being  intended  as  one  of  the  pleasure-rooms 
in  summer.  Dazzled  by  self-interest  and  with  the 
blood  tingling  in  his  ears,  Minoret  unscrewed  the  lock 
with  a  knife  with  all  a  thief's  smartness.  He  entered 
the  study,  took  the  packet  of  papers  without  stopping 
to  unseal  it,  re-screwed  the  lock,  restored  things  in 
place,  and  went  to  sit  down  in  the  dining-room,  wait- 
ing until  La  Bougival  should  have  taken  up  the  poul- 
tice before  he  left  the  house.  He  managed  his  flight 
all  the  more  easily,  as  poor  Ursule  thought  it  more 


236  URSULE  MIROUET 

important  to  see  the  poultice  applied  than  to  obey 
her  godfather's  orders. 

"The  letter!  the  letter!"  cried  the  old  man  in 
dying  tones,  "obey  me,  here  is  the  key.  I  want  to 
see  the  letter  in  your  hand." 

These  words  accompanied  such  an  agonized  look, 
that  La  Bougival  said  to  Ursule: 

"But  do  what  your  godfather  wishes,  or  you  will 
kill  him." 

She  kissed  him  on  the  forehead,  took  the  key  and 
went  down;  but,  soon  recalled  by  La  BougivaPs 
piercing  cries,  she  rushed  back.  The  old  man  took 
her  in  at  a  glance,  saw  her  empty  hands,  sat  up, 
tried  to  speak,  and  died  with  a  last  terrible  gasp, 
his  eyes  wild  with  terror.  The  poor  little  one,  who 
had  never  seen  death  before,  fell  on  her  knees  and 
burst  into  tears.  La  Bougival  closed  the  old  man's 
eyes  and  arranged  him  in  his  bed.  When,  accord- 
ing to  her  expression,  she  had  dressed  the  dead,  the 
old  nurse  ran  to  tell  Monsieur  Savinien;  but  the 
heirs,  who  were  at  the  end  of  the  street,  surrounded 
by  on-lookers,  just  like  crows  waiting  for  the  burial 
of  a  horse  to  come  and  scratch  the  earth  and  dig 
it  out  with  their  claws  and  beaks,  ran  up  with  the 
rapidity  of  birds  of  prey. 

During  these  events,  the  postmaster  had  gone 
home  to  find  out  the  contents  of  the  mysterious 
package. 

This  is  what  he  found : 


URSULE  MIROUET  237 

TO  MY  DEAR  URSULE  MIROUET,  DAUGHTER  OF  MY 
NATURAL  BROTHER-IN-LAW,  JOSEPH  MIROUET, 
AND  OF  DINAH  GROLLMAN. 

"  Nemours,  January  15,  1830. 
"  MY  LITTLE  ANGEL, 

"  My  paternal  affection,  which  you  have  so  thoroughly 
justified,  has  had  as  principle  not  only  the  vow  1  made  your 
poor  father  to  replace  him  ;  but  still  further  your  likeness  to 
Ursule  Mirouet,  my  wife,  of  whose  grace,  mind,  sincerity  and 
charm,  you  have  incessantly  reminded  me.  Your  position  as 
daughter  of  my  father-in-law's  natural  son  may  render  any 
testamentary  arrangement  made  in  your  favor  subject  to 
dispute — 

"The  old  scoundrel!  "  cried  the  postmaster. 

"  Your  adoption  would  have  been  the  cause  of  a  lawsuit. 
Finally,  I  have  always  shrunk  from  the  idea  of  marrying  you 
to  transmit  my  fortune  to  you  ;  for  I  might  have  lived  a  long 
time  and  disturbed  your  future  happiness,  which  is  only  de- 
layed by  Madame  de  Portendue*re's  life.  These  difficulties 
being  thoroughly  weighed,  and  wishing  to  leave  you  the  for- 
tune necessary  to  a  happy  life — 

"The  rascal,  he  has  thought  of  everything!  " 
"  Without  injuring  my  heirs  in  any  way — 

"The  Jesuit!  as  if  he  did  not  owe  us  all  his  for- 
tune!" 

"  I  have  reserved  for  you  the  fruits  of  my  savings  of  eight- 
een years,  which  I  have  constantly  put  out  at  interest 
through  the  care  of  my  notary,  with  a  view  to  making  you 
as  happy  as  is  possible  through  riches.  Without  money 


238  URSULE  MIROUET 

your  education  and  your  lofty  ideas  would  cause  you  mis- 
fortune. Besides,  you  owe  a  handsome  dowry  to  the  charm- 
ing young  man  who  loves  you.  So  you  will  find — in  the 
middle  of  the  third  volume  of  the  Pandects,  in  folio,  bound 
in  red  morocco,  which  is  the  last  volume  in  the.  first  row, 
above  the  tablet  of  the  library,  in  the  last  division  on  the 
salon  side,  three  bonds  of  the  three  per  cents,  to  bearer,  of 
twelve  thousand  francs  each — 

"What  depth  of  villainy!"  cried  the  post- 
master. "Ah!  God  will  not  allow  me  to  be  so  de- 
frauded." 

"  Take  them  at  once,  as  well  as  the  small  arrears  of  sav- 
ings up  to  the  time  of  my  death,  and  which  will  be  in  the 
preceding  volume.  Remember,  my  adored  child,  that  you 
ought  to  blindly  obey  a  thought  which  has  formed  the  happi- 
ness of  my  whole  life,  and  which  will  oblige  me  to  ask  the 
help  of  God,  if  you  disobey  me.  But,  in  anticipation  of  any 
scruple  of  your  dear  conscience,  which  I  know  to  be  ingenious 
at  self-torture,  you  will  find  herewith  a  will  in  due  form  of 
these  bonds  for  the  benefit  of  Monsieur  Savinien  de  Por- 
tenduere.  And  so,  whether  you  yourself  possess  them,  or 
whether  they  come  to  you  from  him  whom  you  love,  they 
will  be  your  lawful  property. 

"  Your  godfather, 

"  DENIS  MINORET." 

"To  this  was  subjoined,  on  a  square  piece  of 
stamped  paper,  the  following  document: 

THIS  IS  MY  WILL. 

"  I,  Denis  Minoret,  doctor  of  medicine,  residing  at  Nemours, 
of  sound  mind  and  body,  as  is  shown  by  the  date  of  this  will, 
do  bequeath  my  soul  to  God,  praying  him  to  pardon  my  long 
errors  in  favor  of  my  sincere  repentance.  Then,  knowing 


URSULE  MIROUET  239 

that  Monsieur  le  Vicomte  Savinien  de  Portenduere  has  a 
genuine  affection  for  me,  I  leave  him  thirty-six  thousand 
francs  in  bonds  of  the  three  per  cents,  to  be  taken  out  of 
my  inheritance,  in  preference  to  all  my  heirs. 

"  Made  and  written  from  beginning  to  end  by  my  hand,  at 
Nemours,  the  nth  January,  1831. 

"DENIS  MINORET." 

Without  hesitation,  the  postmaster  who,  in  order 
to  be  quite  alone,  had  shut  himself  into  his  wife's 
room,  looked  for  the  tinder  box,  and  received  two 
warnings  from  Heaven  by  the  extinction  of  two 
matches  that  successively  refused  to  strike.  The 
third  caught  fire.  He  burnt  the  letter  and  the  will 
in  the  fireplace.  With  unnecessary  caution,  he 
buried  the  remains  of  the  paper  and  wax  in  the 
ashes.  Then,  tempted  by  the  idea  of  possessing 
the  thirty-six  thousand  francs  unknown  to  his 
wife,  he  returned  at  double  quick  speed  to  his 
uncle's  house,  goaded  by  the  only  idea,  a  simple, 
clear  idea,  that  could  penetrate  his  thick  skull. 
Seeing  his  uncle's  house  invaded  by  the  three  fam- 
ilies who  had  at  last  made  themselves  masters  of 
the  place,  he  trembled  lest  he  should  be  unable  to 
accomplish  a  plan  about  which  he  did  not  allow  him- 
self time  to  reflect,  whilst  only  thinking  of  the  ob- 
stacles. 

"What  are  you  doing  here?"  he  said  to  Massin 
and  Cremiere.  "Do  you  think  we  are  going  to 
leave  the  house  and  valuables  to  be  plundered  ?  We 
are  three  inheritors,  we  cannot  encamp  here !  Cre- 
miere, do  hurry  to  Dionis  and  tell  him  to  come  and 


240  URSULE  MIROUET 

testify  to  the  decease.  Although  deputy-mayor,  I 
cannot  draw  up  my  uncle's  certificate  of  death. — 
You,  Massin,  go  and  ask  old  Bongrand  to  affix  the 
seals. — And  you,  mesdames,  keep  Ursule  company," 
he  said  to  his  wife,  to  Mesdames  Massin  and  Cre- 
miere.  "In  this  way  nothing  will  be  lost.  Above 
all,  shut  the  gate  so  that  no  one  can  go  out!" 

The  women,  who  felt  the  propriety  of  this  hint, 
ran  to  Ursule's  room  and  found  this  noble  creature, 
already  so  cruelly  suspected,  on  her  knees  praying 
to  God,  her  face  streaming  with  tears.  Minoret, 
guessing  that  the  three  heiresses  would  not  stay 
long  with  Ursule,  and  fearing  the  suspicion  of  his 
co-heirs,  went  into  the  library,  found  the  book, 
opened  it,  took  the  three  bonds  and  found  thirty 
bank  notes  in  the  other.  In  spite  of  his  coarse 
nature,  the  giant  fancied  he  could  hear  a  peal  of 
bells  in  each  ear,  and  the  blood  hissed  in  his  temples 
as  he  accomplished  this  theft  In  spite  of  the 
severity  of  the  season,  his  shirt  clung  to  his  back; 
at  last  his  legs  trembled  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
sank  upon  one  of  the  salon  sofas,  as  if  a  club  had 
struck  him  on  the  head. 

"Ah!  how  an  inheritance  loosens  the  great  Mi- 
noret's  tongue!"  Massin  said,  as  he  rushed  about  the 
town.  "Did  you  hear  him?"  he  said  to  Cremiere. 
"  'Go  here!  go  there!'  as  if  he  were  drilling!" 

"Yes,  for  a  great  big  fool,  he  had  a  certain  look — " 

"Why,"  said  Massin,  alarmed,  "his  wife  is  there, 
they  are  two  too  many !  You  do  the  commissions,  I 
am  going  back." 


URSULE  MIROUET  241 

And  so  just  as  the  postmaster  was  sitting  down, 
he  saw  appearing  at  the  gate  the  excited  face  of  the 
justice's  clerk,  who  was  returning  with  all  a  wea- 
sel's speed  to  the  dead  man's  house. 

"Well,  what  is  the  matter?"  asked  the  postmas- 
ter, going  to  let  in  his  co-heir . 

"Nothing;  I  have  come  back  for  the  seals,"  re- 
plied Massin,  darting  the  look  of  a  wildcat  at  him. 

"I  wish  they  were  already  fixed,  and  we  could  all 
go  home,"  rejoined  Minoret 

"Faith!  we  will  place  a  watchman  over  the 
seals,"  said  the  clerk.  "La  Bougival  is  capable  of 
anything  in  the  interests  of  the  little  humbug.  We 
will  get  Goupil." 

"Goupil?"  said  the  postmaster.  "He  will  take 
the  money-box  and  we  shall  see  nothing  of  it" 

"Let  me  see!"  rejoined  Massin.  "To-night, 
they  will  watch  the  dead,  and  we  shall  have  finished 
affixing  the  seals  in  an  hour's  time;  and  so  our 
wives  will  themselves  guard  them.  To-morrow,  at 
midday  we  shall  have  the  funeral.  We  cannot 
proceed  to  the  inventory  for  eight  days." 

"But,"  said  the  giant,  smiling,  "we  will  make 
the  little  humbug  pack  off,  and  we  will  put  the 
mayor's  drummer  in  charge  of  the  seals  and  the 
house." 

"Very  well,"  cried  the  justice's  clerk,  "you  must 
undertake  this  expedition,  you  are  head  of  the  Mi- 
nor ets." 

"Mesdames,  mesdames,"  said  Minoret,  "will  you 
all  please  remain  in  the  salon ;  it  is  not  a  question 
16 


242  URSULE  MIROUET 

of  going  to  dinner,  but  of  proceeding  to  the  setting 
of  the  seals  for  the  preservation  of  everybody's 
interests." 

Then  he  took  his  wife  aside  to  acquaint  her  with 
Massin's  ideas  in  relation  to  Ursule.  The  women, 
whose  hearts  were  full  of  revenge  and  who  were 
longing  to  turn  the  tables  on  the  little  humbug,  at 
once  welcomed  with  enthusiasm  the  plan  of  ex- 
pelling her. 

Bongrand  appeared  and  was  indignant  at  the 
proposal  made  him  by  Zelie  and  Madame  Massin 
that,  in  his  character  of  the  deceased  man's  friend, 
he  should  ask  Ursule  to  leave  the  house. 

"Go  yourselves  and  turn  her  out  of  her  father's, 
her  godfather's,  her  uncle's,  her  benefactor's,  her 
guardian's  house !  Go,  you  who  only  owe  your  in- 
heritance to  her  nobleness  of  mind,  take  her  by  the 
shoulders  and  thrust  her  into  the  street,  in  front  of 
the  whole  town !  You  believe  her  capable  of  rob- 
bing you  ?  Well  then,  place  a  guard  over  the  seals, 
you  will  be  within  your  rights.  But  first  know  that 
I  will  not  fix  seals  on  her  room ;  she  is  in  her  own 
home,  all  that  is  in  it  is  her  own  property ;  I  shall 
inform  her  of  her  rights,  and  shall  tell  her  to  there 
collect  all  that  belongs  to  her — Oh !  in  your  pres- 
ence!" he  added,  hearing  growls  from  the  heirs. 

"Heyday!"  said  the  tax-collector  to  the  post- 
master and  to  the  women,  who  were  stupefied  at 
Bongrand's  choleric  speech. 

"There's  a  magistrate!"  cried  the  postmaster. 

Seated  on  a  small  sofa,  half  fainting,   her  head 


URSULE  MIROUET  243 

thrown  back  her  plaits  undone,  was  Ursule,  sobbing 
from  time  to  time.  Her  eyes  were  dim,  her  lids 
swollen,  in  short,  she  was  a  prey  to  a  moral  and 
physical  prostration  which  would  have  touched  the 
most  ferocious  beings,  except  heirs. 

"Ah!  Monsieur  Bongrand,  after  my  birthday 
comes  death  and  mourning!"  she  said,  with  the 
natural  poetry  of  a  beautiful  mind.  "You  know 
what  he  was :  for  twenty  years  he  never  spoke  a 
single  impatient  word  to  me !  I  thought  he  would 
live  a  hundred  years!  He  has  been  a  mother  to 
me,"  she  cried,  "and  a  good  mother!" 

These  few  uttered  thoughts  brought  on  floods  of 
tears,  broken  by  sobs;  then  she  subsided  into  a 
heap. 

"My  child,"  rejoined  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
hearing  the  heirs  on  the  staircase,  "you  have  all 
your  life  before  you  for  crying,  and  you  have 
only  a  moment  for  your  affairs;  collect  in  your 
room  all  that  belongs  to  you  in  this  house.  The 
heirs  are  forcing  me  to  put  seals — " 

"Ah!  the  heirs  can  take  everything,"  cried 
Ursule  standing  up  in  a  fit  of  savage  indignation. 
"All  that  is  most  precious  I  have  here,"  she  said, 
striking  her  bosom. 

"And  what  is  that?"  asked  the  postmaster,  who, 
with  Massin,  showed  his  dreadful  face. 

"The  memory  of  his  virtues,  his  life,  of  all  his 
words,  an  image  of  his  heavenly  soul,"  she  said, 
her  eyes  and  face  flashing,  while  she  raised  her  hand 
with  a  magnificent  gesture. 


244  URSULE  MIROUET 

"And  you  have  also  a  key!"  cried  Massin,  creep- 
ing like  a  cat  and  seizing  a  key  which  Ursule's 
movement  had  dislodged  from  the  folds  of  her 
bodice. 

"That,"  she  said,  reddening,  "is  the  key  of  his 
study,  he  was  sending  me  there  at  the  moment  he 
died." 

After  having  exchanged  hideous  smiles,  the  two 
heirs  looked  at  the  justice  of  the  peace  expressive  of 
withering  suspicion.  Ursule,  observing  and  guess- 
ing the  meaning  of  this  look,  calculated  with  the 
postmaster,  involuntary  on  the  part  of  Massin,  stood 
up  on  her  feet,  and  turned  as  pale  as  if  the  blood 
were  leaving  her;  her  eyes  darted  that  lightning 
which,  it  may  be,  only  flashes  at  the  cost  of  life, 
and  she  said,  in  a  choking  voice: 

"Ah!  Monsieur  Bongrand,  all  that  is  in  this  room 
comes  to  me  from  my  godfather's  kindness,  they 
may  take  all,  I  have  only  the  clothes  upon  me,  I 
will  go  out  and  never  re-enter  it  again." 

She  went  to  her  guardian's  room,  from  which  no 
entreaties  could  move  her,  for  the  heirs  were  a  little 
ashamed  of  their  behavior.  She  told  La  Bougival  to 
engage  two  rooms  for  her  at  the  inn  of  La  Vieille- 
Poste,  until  she  should  have  found  some  lodging  in 
town  where  they  could  both  live.  She  went  back 
to  her  room  to  fetch  her  prayer-book,  and  remained 
all  night  with  the  cure,  the  curate  and  Savinien, 
praying  and  weeping.  The  nobleman  came  after 
his  mother  had  gone  to  bed,  and  knelt  down  without 
a  word  beside  Ursule,  who  gave  him  the  saddest 


URSULE  MIROUET  245 

smile  while  thanking  him  for  so  faithfully  coming 
to  share  her  sorrows. 

"My  child,"  said  Monsieur  Bongrand,  bringing 
Ursule  a  bulky  packet,  "one  of  your  uncle's  heir- 
esses has  taken  out  of  your  cupboard  all  that  you 
will  want;  for  it  will  be  a  few  days  before  the  seals 
will  be  removed,  and  you  will  then  recover  what- 
ever belongs  to  you.  In  your  own  interests,  I  have 
put  the  seals  on  your  room." 

"Thank  you,  monsieur,"  she  replied,  going  to 
him  and  squeezing  his  hand.  "Look  at  him  once 
more;  would  you  not  think  he  was  asleep?" 

The  old  man  at  that  moment  had  that  bloom  of 
transient  beauty  which  rests  on  the  faces  of  those 
who  have  died  painlessly,  he  seemed  radiant 

"Did  he  give  you  nothing  secretly  before  dying?" 
whispered  the  justice  of  the  peace  to  Ursule. 

"Nothing,  "she  said,  "he  only  spoke  of  a  letter — " 

"Good!  it  will  be  found,"  rejoined  Bongrand. 
"So  it  is  very  lucky  for  you  that  they  insisted  upon 
the  seals." 

At  dawn,  Ursule  bade  farewell  to  this  house  in 
which  her  happy  childhood  had  been  spent,  and  es- 
pecially to  the  modest  room  where  her  love  had 
commenced,  and  which  was  so  dear  to  her  that  in 
the  midst  of  her  dismal  grief  she  shed  tears  of  regret 
for  this  peaceful,  sweet  abode.  After  having,  for 
the  last  time,  alternately  contemplated  her  windows 
and  Savinien,  she  went  out  to  go  to  the  inn,  accom- 
panied by  La  Bougival,  who  was  carrying  her 
bundle,  by  the  justice  of  the  peace,  who  gave  her  his 


246  URSULE  MIROUET 

arm,  and  by  Savinien,  her  gentle  protector.  And 
thus,  in  spite  of  the  wisest  precautions,  the  mistrust- 
ful lawyer  found  he  was  in  the  right;  he  was  to  see 
Ursule  without  a  fortune  and  struggling  with  the 
heirs. 

The  next  night,  the  whole  town  was  present  at 
the  obsequies  of  Doctor  Minoret  When  the  be- 
havior of  the  heirs  toward  his  adopted  daughter  was 
known,  the  great  majority  considered  it  natural 
and  necessary;  it  was  a  question  of  an  inheritance, 
the  old  man  was  close;  Ursule  might  imagine  she 
had  rights,  the  heirs  were  defending  their  property, 
and  besides,  she  had  humiliated  them  enough  during 
the  life  of  their  uncle,  who  used  to  receive  them 
very  badly.  Desire  Minoret,  who  was  not  doing 
wonders  in  his  situation,  so  said  those  who  envied 
the  postmaster,  arrived  for  the  service.  Ursule  was 
in  bed,  incapable  of  attending  the  funeral,  the  victim 
of  a  nervous  fever  caused  as  much  by  the  insult  of 
the  heirs  as  by  her  deep  affliction. 

"Just  look  at  that  hypocrite  crying!"  said  some 
of  the  heirs,  pointing  to  Savinien,  who  was  keenly 
grieved  at  the  doctor's  death. 

"The  point  is  whether  he  has  reason  to  cry,"  ob- 
served Goupil.  "Don't  be  in  a  hurry  to  laugh,  the 
seals  are  not  removed." 

"Bah!"  said  Minoret,  who  knew  what  to  think 
about  that,  "you  have  always  frightened  us  for 
nothing." 

Just  as  the  funeral  left  the  church  for  the  ceme- 
tery, Goupil  had  to  swallow  a  bitter  draught;  he 


URSULE  MIROUET  247 

wanted  to  take  Desire's  arm,  but,  by  refusing  it  to 
him,  the  deputy  disowned  his  friend  in  the  presence 
of  all  Nemours. 

"I  must  not  get  angry,  or  I  should  not  be  able  to 
avenge  myself  any  more,"  thought  the  head  clerk, 
whose  unfeeling  heart  swelled  like  a  sponge  in  his 
bosom. 

Before  raising  the  seals  and  proceeding  to  the  in- 
ventory, time  was  needed  for  the  attorney  for  the 
crown,  the  legal  guardian  of  orphans,  to  appoint 
Bongrand  as  his  representative.  The  Minoret  in- 
heritance, which  was  talked  about  for  ten  days,  was 
then  examined,  and  was  verified  with  all  the  strict- 
ness of  legal  formalities.  Dionis  got  something  by 
it,  Goupil  liked  doing  wrong  well  enough;  and,  as 
the  speculation  was  a  good  one,  the  sittings  multi- 
plied. After  the  first  sitting  they  nearly  always 
breakfasted.  The  notary,  the  clerk,  heirs  and  wit- 
nesses used  to  drink  the  rarest  wines  in  the  cellar. 


In  the  provinces,  and  especially  in  the  small 
towns  where  everyone  possesses  his  own  house, 
it  is  difficult  enough  to  find  lodgings.  Moreover,  in 
buying  an  establishment  of  any  kind,  the  house 
nearly  always  forms  part  of  the  sale.  The  justice 
of  the  peace,  to  whom  the  attorney  for  the  crown 
had  entrusted  the  orphan's  interests,  saw  no  other 
way  of  removing  her  from  the  inn  than  by  making 
her  buy  a  little  house  in  the  Grand'Rue,  at  the 
corner  of  the  bridge  on  the  Loing,  with  the  house- 
door  opening  on  a  passage,  and  having  only  one 
parlor  on  the  ground  floor  with  two  windows  look- 
ing on  the  street,  and  behind  which  there  was  a 
kitchen,  with  a  French  window  looking  on  an  inner 
court  about  thirty  feet  square.  A  small  staircase 
lighted  on  the  riverside  by  borrowed  lights,  led  to  the 
second  story,  composed  of  three  rooms  over  which 
were  two  attics.  The  justice  of  the  peace  took  two 
thousand  francs  out  of  La  Bougival's  savings  to  pay 
the  first  part  of  the  cost  of  the  house,  which  was 
worth  six  thousand  francs,  and  he  obtained  terms 
for  the  remainder.  In  order  to  find  room  for  the 
books  Ursule  wished  to  buy  back,  Bongrand  had  the 
inner  partition  of  the  two  rooms  on  the  second  floor 
destroyed,  after  having  noticed  that  the  depth  of  the 
house  corresponded  to  the  length  of  the  body  of  the 
library.  Savinien  and  the  justice  of  the  peace  so 
(249) 


250  URSULE  MIROUET 

hurried  on  the  workmen  who  were  cleaning,  paint- 
ing and  renovating  the  little  house,  that,  toward  the 
end  of  March,  the  orphan  was  able  to  leave  her  inn, 
and  discovered  in  this  ugly  house  a  room  similar  to 
the  one  from  which  the  heirs  had  hunted  her,  for  it 
was  full  of  her  own  furniture  that  the  justice  of  the 
peace  had  recovered  at  the  raising  of  the  seals.  La 
Bougival,  located  above,  could  come  down  at  the  call 
of  a  bell  placed  at  the  head  of  her  young  mistress's 
bed.  The  room  destined  for  the  library,  the  ground- 
floor  parlor  and  the  kitchen,  still  empty,  only 
stained,  freshly  papered  and  painted,  were  waiting 
for  the  purchases  the  goddaughter  was  to  make  at 
the  sale  of  her  godfather's  furniture.  Although  they 
knew  Ursule's  character,  the  justice  of  the  peace 
and  the  cure  dreaded  this  sudden  transition  for  her 
to  a  life  devoid  of  the  refinements  and  luxury  to 
which  the  deceased  doctor  had  insisted  upon  accus- 
toming her.  As  to  Savinien,  he  wept  about  it 
And  so  he  had  secretly  given  the  workmen  and  the 
upholsterer  more  than  one  compensation  in  order 
that  Ursule  should  find  no  difference,  at  least  in  the 
interior,  between  the  old  and  the  new  room.  But 
the  young  girl,  who  derived  all  her  happiness  from 
Savinien's  eyes,  showed  the  gentlest  resignation. 
In  these  circumstances,  she  enchanted  her  two  old 
friends  and  proved  to  them,  for  the  thousandth 
time,  that  heart  sorrows  only  could  make  her  suffer. 
The  grief  that  the  loss  of  her  godfather  caused  her 
was  too  deep  for  her  to  feel  the  bitterness  of  this 
change  of  fortune,  which,  nevertheless,  contributed 


URSULE  MIROUET  251 

fresh  obstacles  to  her  marriage.  She  was  so  much 
hurt  atSavinien's  sadness  at  seeing  her  so  reduced, 
that  she  was  obliged  to  whisper  to  him,  coming  out 
from  mass  on  the  morning  of  her  entry  into  her  new 
house : 

"Love  does  not  thrive  without  patience,  we  will 
wait!" 

As  soon  as  the  title  deeds  of  the  inventory  were 
drawn  up,  Massin,  by  the  advice  of  Goupil,  who  had 
changed  over  to  him  out  of  secret  hatred  for  Minoret, 
hoping  something  better  from  the  usurer's  selfish- 
ness than  from  Zelie's  cautiousness,  sued  Monsieur 
and  Madame  de  Portenduere,  whose  payments  had 
fallen  due.  The  old  lady  was  stunned  at  being 
called  upon  to  pay  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine 
thousand  five  hundred  and  seventeen  francs  fifty- 
five  centimes  to  the  heirs  at  twenty-four  hours' 
notice,  and  the  interest  from  the  day  of  the  appli- 
cation, at  the  risk  of  seizure  of  her  property.  To 
borrow  was  impossible.  Savinien  went  to  consult 
a  solicitor  at  Fontainebleau. 

"You  have  to  deal  with  bad  people  who  will 
never  compromise ;  they  will  prosecute  unmercifully 
to  get  possession  of  the  farm  of  Bordieres,"  said  the 
solicitor.  "It  would  be  best  to  convert  the  sale  into 
a  voluntary  auction,  so  as  to  avoid  expense." 

This  sad  news  crushed  the  old  Bretonne,  to  whom 
her  son  mildly  observed,  that,  had  she  consented  to 
his  marriage  during  Minoret's  lifetime,  the  doctor 
would  have  given  her  estates  to  Ursule's  husband. 
Their  household  would  now  have  been  in  wealth 


2$2  URSULE  MIROUET 

instead  of  poverty.  Although  uttered  anreproach- 
fully,  this  argument  wounded  the  old  lady  quite  as 
much  as  the  idea  of  an  early  and  violent  disposses- 
sion. On  learning  this  disaster,  Ursule,  barely  re- 
covered from  the  fever  and  the  blow  aimed  at  her 
by  the  heirs,  was  stupefied  with  grief.  To  love  and 
find  one's  self  powerless  to  succor  the  beloved  one  is 
one  of  the  most  frightful  sufferings  that  can  lay 
waste  to  the  soul  of  a  noble,  delicate  woman. 

"I  meant  to  have  bought  my  uncle's  house,  I  shall 
buy  your  mother's,"  she  said. 

"Is  it  possible  ?"  said  Savinien.  "You  are  a  minor 
and  cannot  sell  your  stock  without  formalities  to 
which  the  attorney  for  the  crown  would  never  con- 
sent Besides,  we  shall  not  attempt  to  resist  The 
whole  town  is  delighted  to  see  the  discomfiture  of  a 
noble  family.  These  bourgeois  are  like  hounds  at 
the  death.  Happily  I  still  have  ten  thousand  francs 
with  which  I  shall  be  able  to  provide  for  my  mother 
until  the  end  of  this  wretched  business.  After  all, 
your  godfather's  inventory  is  not  finished;  Mon- 
sieur Bongrand  still  hopes  to  find  something  for  you. 
He  is  as  astonished  as  I  am  to  know  that  you  are 
without  any  fortune.  The  doctor  so  often  spoke, 
either  to  him  or  to  me,  of  the  beautiful  future  he 
had  arranged  for  you,  that  we  do  not  at  all  under- 
stand this  issue." 

"Bah!"  she  said,  "as  long  as  I  can  buy  my  god- 
father's library  and  furniture  so  that  they  shall  not 
be  scattered  or  fall  into  the  hands  of  strangers,  I  am 
contented  with  my  lot" 


URSULE  MIROUET  253 

"But  who  knows  what  price  these  infamous  heirs 
may  not  put  on  all  you  wish  to  have?" 

From  Montargis  to  Fontainebleau  nothing  was 
talked  of  but  the  Minoret  heirs  and  the  million  they 
were  looking  for;  but  the  most  minute  searches 
made  in  the  house  since  the  raising  of  the  seals, 
had  not  led  to  any  discovery.  The  Portenduere 
debt  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-nine  thousand  francs, 
the  fifteen  thousand  francs'  income  from  the  three 
per  cents,  then  at  seventy-six,  and  which  gave  a 
capital  of  three  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  francs, 
the  house,  valued  at  forty  thousand  francs,  and 
its  rich  furniture,  produced  a  total  of  about  six 
hundred  thousand  francs  which  seemed  to  every- 
body a  sufficiently  handsome  compensation.  Min- 
oret then  had  several  gnawing  anxieties.  La 
Bougival  and  Savinien,  who,  as  well  as  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  persisted  in  believing  in  the  exist- 
ence of  some  will,  used  to  arrive  at  the  close  of 
each  sitting  and  ask  Bongrand  the  result  of  the 
searches.  Sometimes  the  old  man's  friend  would 
exclaim,  just  as  the  men  of  business  and  the  heirs 
were  leaving:  "I  don't  understand  it  at  all!"  As, 
to  many  superficial  people,  two  hundred  thousand 
francs  made  a  fine  pr.ovincial  fortune  for  each 
heir,  nobody  thought  of  asking  how  the  doctor 
had  been  able  to  keep  up  his  style  of  household 
with  only  fifteen  thousand  francs,  since  he  had 
left  untouched  the  interest  on  the  Portenduere 
debt  Bongrand,  Savinien  and  the  cure  alone  took 
up  this  question  in  Ursule's  interest,  and,  by 


254  URSULE  MIROUET 

expressing  it,  made  the  postmaster  turn  pale  more 
than  once. 

"And  yet  they  have  searched  everything  thor- 
oughly, they,  in  order  to  find  money,  I,  to  find  a  will 
which  ought  to  be  in  Monsieur  de  Portenduere's 
favor,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace  the  day  on 
which  the  inventory  was  closed.  "They  have  scat- 
tered the  cinders,  raised  the  marbles,  felt  the  slip- 
pers, pierced  through  the  wooden  beds,  emptied  the 
mattresses,  pricked  the  blankets  and  quilts,  turned 
out  his  eiderdown,  examined  the  papers  bit  by  bit, 
and  the  drawers,  upset  the  floor  of  the  cellar,  and  I 
urged  them  on  to  these  devastations!" 

"What  do  you  think  of  it?"  said  the  cure. 

"The  will  has  been  suppressed  by  one  of  the 
heirs." 

"And  the  papers?" 

"Look  for  them  then!  Find  out  what  you  can  of 
the  ways  of  such  sneaking,  sly,  miserly  people  as 
the  Massins  and  the  Cremieres !  How  are  you  to 
thoroughly  understand  a  fortune  like  Minoret's?  he 
receives  two  hundred  thousand  francs  of  the  inher- 
itance, and  they  say  he  is  going  to  sell  his  license, 
his  house  and  his  shares  in  the  stage-coach,  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs. — What  sums! 
without  counting  the  savings  of  his  thirty  odd 
thousand  francs  income  from  landed  property — 
Poor  doctor!" 

"Perhaps  the  will  has  been  hidden  in  the 
library?"  said  Savinien. 

"Therefore  I  do  not  dissuade  the  little  one  from 


URSULE  MIROUET  255 

buying  it!  But  for  that,  would  it  not  be  folly  to  let 
her  put  her  ready  money  into  books  which  she  will 
never  open?" 

The  whole  town  believed  the  doctor's  goddaughter 
to  have  been  provided  with  the  hidden  funds,  but, 
when  it  became  positively  known  that  her  income 
of  fourteen  hundred  francs  and  her  repurchases  con- 
stituted her  entire  fortune,  then  the  doctor's  house 
and  personal  property  excited  universal  curiosity. 
Some  thought  that  sums  in  banknotes  would  be 
found  hidden  in  the  pieces  of  furniture;  others,  that 
the  old  man  had  lined  his  books.  And  so  the  sale 
presented  the  spectacle  of  strange  precautions  taken 
by  the  heirs.  Dionis,  acting  as  auctioneer,  pro- 
claimed every  time  an  article  was  put  up  that  the 
heirs  only  intended  selling  the  piece  of  furniture 
and  not  any  valuable  it  might  contain ;  then,  before 
surrendering  it,  they  all  submitted  it  to  light-fingered 
examinations,  having  it  probed  and  sounded;  in 
fact,  they  followed  it  with  the  same  look  which  a 
father  would  give  to  his  only  son  on  seeing  him  leave 
for  the  Indies. 

"Ah!  mademoiselle!"  said  La  Bougival,  in  dis- 
may upon  her  return  from  the  first  sitting,  "I  shall 
not  go  again.  And  Monsieur  Bongrand  is  right,  you 
would  not  be  able  to  bear  such  a  sight  Every- 
thing is  out  in  the  grounds.  People  come  and  go 
everywhere  as  if  it  were  the  street,  the  handsomest 
furniture  is  put  to  any  use,  they  climb  upon  it, 
and  a  hen  would  not  be  able  to  find  her  chicks  for 
the  muddle !  One  would  think  one  was  at  a  fire. 


256  URSULE  MIROUET 

The  things  are  in  the  yard,  the  cupboards  open,  and 
nothing  in  them !  Oh !  the  poor  dear  man,  it  was 
well  he  died,  this  sale  would  have  killed  him." 

Bongrand,  who  bought  for  Ursule  the  pieces  of 
furniture  that  the  deceased  had  been  fond  of  and 
that  were  calculated  to  adorn  the  little  house,  did 
not  appear  at  all  at  the  sale  of  the  library.  More 
cunning  than  the  heirs,  whose  avidity  might  have 
made  him  pay  too  dear  for  the  books,  he  had 
commissioned  a  dealer  in  second-hand  books  at 
Melun,  who  had  purposely  come  to  Nemours,  and 
who  had  already  had  several  lots  knocked  down  to 
him.  In  consequence  of  the  suspicion  of  the  heirs, 
the  library  was  sold  in  separate  works.  Three 
thousand  volumes  were  examined,  rummaged  one 
by  one,  held  up  by  both  sides  of  the  uplifted  cover, 
and  shaken  in  order  to  turn  out  any  papers  that 
might  be  hidden  in  them;  finally  their  covers  and 
fly-leaves  were  examined.  The  total  of  the  auc- 
tion, for  Ursule,  ran  up  to  about  six  thousand  five 
hundred  francs,  the  half  of  her  claim  against 
the  estate.  The  bookcase  was  not  given  up  until 
after  it  had  been  carefully  examined  by  a  cabinet- 
maker sent  for  from  Paris,  who  was  celebrated  for 
secret  drawers.  When  the  justice  of  the  peace 
gave  the  order  for  the  bookcase  and  the  books  to 
be  conveyed  to  Mademoiselle  Mirouet,  the  heirs  felt 
vague  misgivings,  which  vanished  later  on  when 
she  was  seen  to  be  as  poor  as  before.  Minoret 
bought  his  uncle's  house,  which  his  co-inheritors 
worked  up  to  fifty  thousand  francs,  thinking  that 


URSULE  MIROUET  257 

the  postmaster  was  hoping  to  find  a  treasure  in 
the  walls.  The  conditions  also  contained  reserva- 
tions on  this  subject  A  fortnight  after  the  settle- 
ment of  the  inheritance,  Minoret,  having  sold  his 
horses  and  business  to  the  son  of  a  rich  farmer,  in- 
stalled himself  in  his  uncle's  house,  where  he  spent 
considerable  sums  in  furniture  and  restorations. 
So  in  this  way  Minoret  condemned  himself  to  live 
a  few  steps  away  from  Ursule. 

"I  hope,"  he  had  said  at  Dionis's  the  day  that  the 
formal  notice  had  been  served  upon  Savinien  and 
his  mother,  "that  we  shall  get  rid  of  these  lordlings! 
We  will  drive  the  others  out  afterward." 

"The  old  woman  with  the  fourteen  quarterings," 
replied  Goupil,  "would  never  witness  her  own 
downfall ;  she  will  go  and  die  in  Brittany,  where  no 
doubt  she  will  find  a  wife  for  her  son." 

"I  do  not  think  so,"  answered  the  notary,  who, 
that  morning,  had  drawn  up  the  contract  of  the  pur- 
chase made  by  Bongrand.  "Ursule  has  just  bought 
widow  Richard's  house." 

"That  cursed  little  fool  does  not  know  what  to 
invent  to  annoy  us!"  cried  the  postmaster  very 
rashly. 

"And  what  does  that  matter  to  you,  if  she  lives 
in  Nemours?"  asked  Goupil,  surprised  at  the  move- 
ment of  vexation  that  escaped  the  foolish  giant. 

"You don't  know,"  replied  Minoret,  turning  as  red 
as  a  poppy,  "that  my  son  is  idiotic  enough  to  be  in 
love  with  her.     That  is  why  I  would  willingly  give 
a  hundred  'ecus  if  Ursule  would  leave  Nemours." 
17 


258  URSULE  MIROUET 

From  this  first  outburst,  it  will  be  understood  how 
Ursule,  poor  and  resigned,  was  going  to  annoy  the 
wealthy  Minoret  The  worry  of  an  inheritance  to 
settle,  the  sale  of  his  business,  and  the  visits  neces- 
sitated by  unwonted  affairs,  his  arguments  with  his 
wife  about  the  slightest  details  and  about  the  pur- 
chase of  the  doctor's  house,  in  which  Zelie  wanted 
to  live  in  a  homely  way  in  the  interests  of  her  son ; 
this  uproar,  which  contrasted  with  the  quiet  of  his 
ordinary  life,  prevented  the  great  Minoret  from 
thinking  of  his  victim.  But,  a  few  days  after  his 
installation  in  the  Rue  des  Bourgeois,  toward  the 
middle  of  May,  as  he  was  returning  from  a  walk, 
he  heard  the  sound  of  the  piano,  saw  La  Bougival 
sitting  at  the  window  like  a  dragon  guarding  a 
treasure,  and  suddenly  heard  an  importunate  voice 
within  him. 

To  explain  why,  in  a  man  of  the  former  post- 
master's stamp,  the  sight  of  Ursule,  who  did  not 
even  suspect  the  theft  committed  to  her  injury, 
should  become  unbearable;  why  the  sight  of  this 
dignity  in  misfortune  inspired  him  with  the  desire 
to  send  this  young  girl  out  of  the  town;  and  why 
this  desire  assumed  the  character  of  hatred  and 
passion,  would  perhaps  form  a  whole  treatise  on 
ethics.  Perhaps  he  did  not  think  himself  the  lawful 
owner  of  the  thirty-six  thousand  francs  income  so 
long  as  she  to  whom  it  belonged  was  two  steps 
from  him.  Perhaps  he  had  a  vague  belief  in  some 
chance  that  would  disclose  his  theft  whilst  those 
whom  he  had  robbed  were  there.  Perhaps  Ursule's 


URSULE  MIROUET  259 

presence  was  awakening  remorse  in  this  some- 
what primitive,  almost  gross  nature,  which  up  till 
now  had  never  done  anything  illegal.  Perhaps 
this  remorse  pricked  him  all  the  more  because  he 
had  additional  property  legitimately  acquired.  He 
doubtless  attributed  this  emotion  to  Ursule's 
presence  alone,  fancying  that,  if  once  the  young 
girl  disappeared,  these  tiresome  troubles  would  also 
vanish.  In  short,  perhaps  crime  has  its  doctrine  of 
perfection.  A  beginning  of  evil  must  have  its  end, 
a  first  wound  calls  for  the  blow  that  kills.  It  may 
be  that  theft  leads  inevitably  to  murder.  Minoret 
had  committed  the  robbery  without  the  least  reflec- 
tion, so  rapidly  had  events  succeeded  each  other; 
reflection  came  afterward.  Now,  if  you  have  thor- 
oughly grasped  this  man's  physiognomy  and  appear- 
ance, you  will  understand  the  amazing  effect  that 
thought  would  produce  upon  him.  Remorse  is  more 
than  a  thought,  it  springs  from  a  feeling  that  is 
no  more  hidden  than  love,  and  that  exercises  the 
same  tyranny.  But,  just  as  Minoret  had  not  re- 
flected in  the  least  in  seizing  the  fortune  destined 
for  Ursule,  so  he  mechanically  wished  to  drive  her 
from  Nemours  when  he  felt  himself  injured  by  the 
sight  of  this  deluded  innocence.  Following  his  char- 
acter of  an  imbecile,  he  never  thought  at  all  of  the 
consequences,  but  went  from  peril  to  peril,  prompted 
by  his  covetous  instinct  like  a  wild  animal  which 
does  not  foresee  any  cunning  of  the  hunter  and 
relies  upon  its  own  speed  and  strength.  Very  soon, 
the  rich  bourgeois  who  used  to  meet  at  the  house  of 


260  URSULE  MIROUET 

the  notary  Dionis  remarked  a  change  in  the  man- 
ners and  attitude  of  this  man  who  had  formerly  been 
so  easy-going. 

"I  don't  know  what  is  the  matter  with  Minoret, 
he  is  all  odd!"  said  his  wife,  from  whom  he  had 
resolved  to  hide  his  bold  stroke. 

Everybody  attributed  Minoret's  weariness — for 
the  thought  reflected  in  his  face  was  like  that  of 
weariness — to  the  entire  cessation  of  any  occupa- 
tion, to  the  sudden  change  from  an  active  to  a 
private  life.  Whilst  Minoret  was  considering  how  he 
could  ruin  Ursule's  life,  not  a  day  went  by  without 
La  Bougival's  making  some  allusion  to  her  foster 
daughter  as  to  the  fortune  she  ought  to  have  had, 
or  would  compare  her  wretched  condition  to  that 
which  her  late  master  had  intended  for  her  and  of 
which  he  had  spoken  to  her,  La  Bougival. 

"After  all,"  she  said,  "I  am  not  saying  this  from 
any  selfishness,  but  would  not  my  late  master,  good 
as  he  was,  have  left  me  some  little  thing — ?" 

"Am  I  not  here?"  replied  Ursule,  forbidding  La 
Bougival  to  say  another  word  to  her  on  this  subject 

She  did  not  want  thoughts  of  self-interest  to 
sully  the  kindly,  mournful  and  sweet  memories 
which  went  with  the  noble  face  of  the  old  doctor,  a 
sketch  of  whom,  in  black  and  white  crayons,  done 
by  her  drawing-master,  adorned  her  little  parlor. 
To  her  fresh  and  beautiful  imagination,  the  sight 
of  this  sketch  was  always  enough  to  bring  back 
her  godfather,  whom  she  thought  of  ceaselessly, 
especially  when  she  was  surrounded  by  the  things 


URSULE  MIROUET  261 

he  had  been  fond  of;  his  big  easy-chair  a  la  duch- 
esse,  his  study  furniture  and  his  backgammon  table, 
as  well  as  the  piano  he  had  given  her.  In  the 
midst  of  these  things  almost  quickened  into  life  by 
her  regrets,  the  two  old  friends  remaining  to  her, 
the  Abbe  Chaperon  and  Monsieur  Bongrand — the 
only  persons  she  would  receive — were  like  two  liv- 
ing memories  of  her  past  life,  to  which  she  linked 
her  present  by  the  love  that  her  godfather  had  blest 
Before  long,  the  sadness  of  her  thoughts — insensibly 
softened — in  some  measure  tinged  the  hours  and 
bound  all  these  things  anew  in  indefinable  har- 
mony; there  was  exquisite  cleanliness,  the  most 
precise  symmetry  in  the  arrangement  of  the  furni- 
ture, a  few  flowers  given  every  day  by  Savinien, 
elegant  trifles,  a  hush  that  the  young  girl's  habits 
communicated  to  objects  and  which  made  her  home 
lovely.  When  breakfast  and  mass  were  over,  she 
would  study  and  sing;  then  she  would  embroider, 
sitting  at  her  window  overlooking  the  street  At 
four  o'clock,  Savinien,  returning  from  the  walk  he 
used  to  take  in  all  weathers,  would  find  the  window 
half-open,  and  would  seat  himself  on  the  outer  sill 
for  a  half-hour's  chat  with  her.  In  the  evening  the 
cure  and  the  justice  of  the  peace  used  to  visit  her, 
but  she  never  would  allow  Savinien  to  accompany 
them.  In  fact,  she  would  not  accept  Madame  de 
Portenduere's  proposal,  sent  through  her  son,  that 
Ursule  should  go  to  live  with  her.  Moreover,  the 
young  girl  and  La  Bougival  lived  in  the  strictest 
economy ;  altogether,  they  did  not  spend  more  than 


262  URSULE  MIROUET 

sixty  francs  a  month.  The  old  nurse  was  inde- 
fatigable; she  washed  and  ironed,  she  only  cooked 
twice  a  week,  she  kept  the  cooked  meat  which  the 
mistress  and  servant  ate  cold ;  for  Ursule  wanted  to 
save  seven  hundred  francs  a  year  to  pay  the  re- 
mainder of  the  price  of  her  house.  This  sternness 
of  conduct,  modesty  and  resignation  to  a  life  of  pov- 
erty and  deprivation  after  having  enjoyed  a  lux- 
urious existence  in  which  her  slightest  whims  were 
doted  upon,  won  over  some  people.  Ursule  won 
respect  and  incurred  no  gossip.  Moreover,  once 
satisfied,  the  heirs  did  her  justice.  Savinien  ad- 
mired this  strength  of  character  in  so  young  a  girl. 
From  time  to  time,  coming  away  from  mass,  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere  addressed  a  few  kindly  words 
to  Ursule,  she  invited  her  twice  to  dinner  and  came 
herself  to  fetch  her.  If  it  was  not  yet  happiness,  at 
least  it  was  tranquillity.  But  a  success,  in  which 
the  justice  of  the  peace  showed  his  old  skill  as  a 
lawyer,  caused  the  outburst  of  the  yet  secret  perse- 
cution that  Minoret  was  meditating  against  Ursule, 
and  which  was  of  the  nature  of  a  vow.  As  soon 
as  all  the  business  of  the  inheritance  was  finished, 
the  justice  of  the  peace,  at  Ursule's  entreaty,  took 
the  Portendueres'  cause  in  hand  and  promised  her 
that  he  would  extricate  them  from  their  difficul- 
ties; but,  while  visiting  the  old  lady,  whose  oppo- 
sition to  Ursule's  happiness  made  him  furious,  he 
did  not  leave  her  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
devoting  himself  to  her  interests  solely  to  please 
Mademoiselle  Mirouet  He  selected  one  of  his 


URSULE  MIROUET  263 

former  clerks  as  solicitor  at  Fontainebleau,  for  the 
Portendueres,  and  himself  conducted  the  inquiry 
into  the  nullity  of  the  proceedings.  He  wanted 
to  profit  by  the  interval  that  should  elapse  between 
the  annulment  of  the  prosecution  and  Massin's 
fresh  suit,  to  renew  the  lease  of  the  farm  at  six 
thousand  francs,  to  extract  a  premium  from  the 
farmers  and  the  payment  of  the  last  year  in  ad- 
vance. From  that  time,  the  whist  party  was  re- 
organized at  Madame  de  Portenduere's,  between 
himself,  the  cure,  Savinien  and  Ursule,  whom  Bon- 
grand  and  the  Abbe  Chaperon  used  to  call  for  and 
take  home  every  evening.  In  June,  Bongrand  pro- 
claimed the  nullity  of  the  proceedings  pursued  by 
Massin  against  the  Portendueres.  He  immediately 
signed  the  fresh  lease,  obtained  thirty-two  thou- 
sand francs  from  the  farmer,  and  a  rental  of  six  thou- 
sand francs  for  eighteen  years;  then,  that  evening, 
before  his  transactions  could  be  noised  abroad,  he 
called  upon  Zelie,  whom  he  knew  to  be  puzzled  as 
to  how  she  should  invest  her  funds,  and  proposed 
that  she  should  purchase  Les  Bordieres  for  two 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  francs. 

"I  would  close  the  bargain  at  once,"  said  Minoret, 
"if  I  knew  that  the  Portendueres  would  go  and  live 
elsewhere  than  in  Nemours." 

"But  why?"  replied  the  justice  of  the  peace. 

"We  would  like  to  dispense  with  nobility  at  Ne- 
mours." 

"I  think  I  have  heard  the  old  lady  say  that  if  her 
affairs  were  settled,  she  could  not  live  any  where  but 


264  URSULE  MIROUET 

in  Brittany  on  what  would  remain  to  her.  She 
talks  of  selling  her  house." 

"Well  then,  sell  it  to  me,"  said  Minoret. 

"But  you  talk  as  if  you  were  master,"  said 
Zelie.  "What  do  you  want  with  two  houses?" 

"If  I  do  not  close  with  you  to-night  for  Les  Bor- 
dieres,"  rejoined  the  justice  of  the  peace,  "our  lease 
will  be  known,  we  shall  be  seized  again  in  three 
days,  and  I  shall  fail  in  this  settlement,  which  I  am 
bent  upon.  So  I  shall  go  at  once  to  Melun,  where 
some  farmers  that  I  know  there  will  buy  Les  Bor- 
dieres  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  In  this  way 
you  will  lose  the  chance  of  investing  in  land  at 
three  per  cent  on  the  estates  of  Rouvre." 

"Well  then,  why  did  you  come  to  see  us?"  said 
Zelie. 

"Because  you  have  the  money,  whilst  my  former 
clients  would  need  several  days  to  fork  out  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-nine  thousand  francs.  I  don't 
want  any  difficulties." 

"Let  her  leave  Nemours  and  I  will  give  them  to 
you!"  repeated  Minoret 

"You  understand  that  I  cannot  answer  for  the  will 
of  the  Portendueres, "  replied  Bongrand,  "but  I  am 
sure  that  they  will  not  remain  in  Nemours." 

Upon  this  assurance,  Minoret,  nudged  moreover 
by  Zelie,  promised  the  funds  for  paying  the  Porten- 
dueres' debt  to  the  doctor's  estate.  The  deed  of 
sale  was  then  drawn  up  at  Dionis's,  and  in  it  the 
delighted  justice  of  the  peace  got  Minoret  to  accept 
the  conditions  of  the  new  lease,  the  latter  as  well  as 


URSULE  MIROUET  265 

Zelie  being  a  little  late  in  discovering  the  loss  of 
the  last  year  paid  in  advance.  Toward  the  end  of 
June,  Bongrand  brought  the  adjusted  balance  of  her 
fortune  to  Madame  de  Portenduere,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  thousand  francs,  whilst  urging  her  to 
invest  it  in  the  Funds,  which  with  Savinien's  ten 
thousand  francs  would  give  her  an  income  of  six 
thousand  francs  in  the  five  per  cents.  Thus,  far 
from  losing  on  her  income,  the  old  lady  gained  two 
thousand  francs  a  year  by  the  settlement  And  so 
the  Portenduere  family  remained  in  Nemours. 

Minoret  believed  he  had  been  tricked,  as  if  the 
justice  of  the  peace  could  have  known  that  Ursule's 
presence  was  unbearable  to  him,  and  he  conse- 
quently entertained  a  keen  resentment  which  in- 
creased his  hatred  of  his  victim.  Then  began  the 
drama — secret,  but  terrible  in  its  results — of  the 
struggle  between  two  feelings,  the  one  urging  Mi- 
noret to  drive  Ursule  out  of  Nemours,  and  the  one 
giving  Ursule  strength  to  bear  the  persecutions,  the 
reason  for  which  was  for  some  time  unfathomable;  a 
strange  situation,  to  which  all  the  preceding  events 
had  led,  for  which  they  had  paved  the  way,  and  to 
which  they  had  served  as  a  preface. 

Madame  Minoret,  to  whom  her  husband  had  given 
silverware  and  a  complete  dinner-service  worth 
about  twenty  thousand  francs,  gave  a  gorgeous 
dinner  every  Sunday,  upon  which  day  her  son  the 
deputy  used  to  bring  a  few  friends  from  Fon- 
tainebleau.  For  these  sumptuous  dinners,  Zelie 
would  send  to  Paris  for  rarities,  thus  obliging  the 


266  URSULE  MIROUET 

notary  Dionis  to  imitate  her  ostentation.  Goupil, 
whom  the  Minorets  were  endeavoring  to  exclude 
from  their  society  like  some  disreputable  person 
who  might  sully  their  splendor,  was  not  invited 
until  toward  the  end  of  July,  one  month  after  the 
inauguration  of  the  private  life  led  by  the  former 
owners  of  the  stage.  The  head  clerk,  already  alive 
to  this  intentional  neglect,  was  obliged  to  adopt 
formal  manners  toward  Desire,  who,  since  the  exer- 
cise of  his  duties,  had  assumed  a  solemn  and  super- 
cilious manner  even  with  his  family. 

"Then  you  have  forgotten  all  about  Esther,  now 
that  you  are  in  love  with  Mademoiselle  Mirouet?" 
said  Goupil  to  the  deputy. 

"In  the  first  place,  Esther  is  dead,  monsieur. 
Then,  I  have  never  thought  about  Ursule,"  replied 
the  magistrate. 

"Well  then,  what  were  you  telling  me,  Papa 
Minoret?"  cried  Goupil  very  insolently. 

Minoret,  caught  in  the  very  act  of  lying  by  so 
formidable  a  man,  would  have  been  abashed  but  for 
the  purpose  for  which  he  had  invited  Goupil  to  din- 
ner, whilst  recollecting  the  proposition  once  made 
by  the  head  clerk,  that  he  should  prevent  the  mar- 
riage of  Ursule  and  young  Portenduere.  For  all 
answer,  he  hastily  led  the  clerk  to  the  far  end  of  his 
garden. 

"You  will  soon  be  twenty-eight,  my  dear  fellow," 
he  said,  "and  I  do  not  yet  see  you  on  the  road  to 
good  fortune.  I  wish  you  well,  for  after  all  you 
have  been  my  son's  friend.  Listen  to  me :  if  you 


URSULE  MIROUET  267 

induce  little  Mirouet — who  possesses  moreover  forty 
thousand  francs— to  become  your  wife,  as  sure  as 
my  name  is  Minoret,  I  will  give  you  the  means  to 
buy  a  notary's  practice  at  Orleans." 

"No,"  said  Goupil,  "I  should  not  be  conspicuous 
enough;  but  at  Montargis — " 

"No,"  retorted  Minoret,  "but  at  Sens—" 

"Done!  then  it  shall  be  Sens!"  cried  the  hideous 
head  clerk,  "there  is  an  archbishop  there,  I  do  not 
dislike  a  pious  country;  with  a  little  hypocrisy  one 
gets  on  better.  Besides,  the  little  one  is  religious, 
she  would  be  a  success  there." 

"It  must  be  clearly  understood,"  said  Minoret, 
"that  I  only  give  the  hundred  thousand  francs 
upon  the  marriage  of  our  relation,  whom  1  want  to 
settle  comfortably  out  of  consideration  for  my  dead 
uncle." 

"And  why  not  a  little  for  my  sake?"  said  Goupil 
slily,  suspecting  some  secret  in  Minoret's  behavior, 
"was  it  not  through  my  directions  that  you  were 
able  to  collect  twenty-four  thousand  francs  a  year 
from  one  holding  without  enclave,  round  about  the 
Chateau  du  Rouvre?  With  your  grassland  and  mill 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Loing,  you  might  add  six- 
teen thousand  francs!  See  here,  old  fellow,  do  you 
intend  to  deal  fairly  with  me?" 

"Yes." 

"Well  then,  to  let  you  feel  my  fangs,  I  was  nurs- 
ing the  purchase  of  Le  Rouvre,  the  parks,  gardens, 
reserves  and  forest  for  Massin — " 

"Take  care  how  you  do  that!"  broke  in  Zelie. 


268  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Well  then,"  said  Goupil,  darting  a  viperous  look 
at  her,  "if  I  choose,  Massin  will  have  all  that  for 
two  hundred  thousand  francs." 

"Leave  us,  wife,"  then  said  the  giant,  taking 
Zelie's  arm  and  sending  her  back,  "I  am  settling 
with  him. — We  have  been  so  busy,"  resumed  Mi- 
noret  returning  to  Goupil,  "that  we  have  not  been 
able  to  think  of  you;  but  I  count  upon  your  friend- 
ship to  procure  us  Le  Rouvre." 

"An  old  marquisate,"  said  Goupil,  slily,  "and 
which  in  your  hands  would  soon  be  worth  fifty  thou- 
sand francs  a  year,  more  than  two  millions  at  the 
present  price  of  landed  estate." 

"And  our  deputy  would  then  marry  a  field- 
marshal's  daughter,  or  the  heiress  of  some  old 
family  who  would  advance  him  in  the  magistracy 
of  Paris,"  said  the  postmaster,  opening  his  big 
snuff-box  and  offering  Goupil  a  pinch. 

"Well  then,  are  we  playing  fair?"  cried  Goupil, 
flicking  his  fingers. 

Minoret  squeezed  Goupil's  hands  and  replied: 

"On  my  word  of  honor!" 

Happily  for  Minoret,  the  head  clerk  believed,  like 
all  crafty  people,  that  his  marriage  with  Ursule  was 
an  excuse  for  making  up  to  him  since  he  had  set 
Massin  against  them. 

"It  is  not  he,"  he  said  to  himself,  "who  thought 
of  this  humbug,  I  recognize  my  Zelie,  she  has  dic- 
tated his  r61e.  Bah !  I  can  let  Massin  go.  Before 
three  years  are  over  I  shall  be  deputy  for  Sens,"  he 
thought 


URSULE  MIROUET  269 

Then,  perceiving  Bongrand  who  was  going  to 
play  whist  opposite,  he  rushed  into  the  street. 

"You  are  very  much  interested  in  Ursule  Mirouet, 
my  dear  Monsieur  Bongrand,"  he  said,  "you  can- 
not be  indifferent  to  her  future.  Here  is  the  pro- 
gramme: that  she  should  marry  a  notary  whose 
practice  will  be  in  a  chief  town  of  the  district 
This  notary,  who  is  bound  to  be  deputy  in  three 
years,  will  bring  her  a  dowry  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand francs." 

"She  can  do  better,"  said  Bongrand,  drily. 
"Since  her  misfortunes,  Madame  de  Portenduere 
has  not  been  at  all  well ;  even  yesterday  she  was 
terribly  altered,  sorrow  is  killing  her;  Savinien  still 
has  six  thousand  francs  a  year,  Ursule  has  forty 
thousand  francs,  I  shall  have  their  capitals  put  out 
at  interest  a  la  Massin,  but  honestly,  and  in  ten 
years  they  will  have  a  small  fortune." 

"Savinien  would  be  a  fool;  he  can  marry  Made- 
moiselle du  Rouvre  when  he  pleases,  an  only  daugh- 
ter to  whom  her  uncle  and  aunt  intend  to  leave  two 
magnificent  legacies." 

"  'When  Love  lays  hold  upon  us,  good-bye  to 
prudence,'  says  La  Fontaine.  But  who  is  he,  your 
notary?  for  after  all — "  rejoined  Bongrand  out  of 
curiosity. 

"I,"  replied  Goupil,  startling  the  justice  of  the 
peace. 

"You?"  answered  Bongrand,  without  concealing 
his  disgust. 

"Ah   well!     your    servant,    monsieur,"   replied 


270  URSULE  MIROUET 

Goupil,  casting  him  a  look  full  of  malice,  hatred  and 
defiance. 

" Would  you  like  to  be  the  wife  of  a  notary  who 
will  bring  you  a  dowry  of  one  hundred  thousand 
francs?"  cried  Bongrand,  entering  the  little  parlor 
and  addressing  Ursule,  who  was  sitting  beside  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere. 

Moved  by  the  same  impulse,  Ursule  and  Savinien 
started  and  looked  at  each  other:  she  smiling,  he 
not  daring  to  show  his  anxiety. 

"I  am  not  mistress  of  my  actions,"  replied 
Ursule,  holding  out  her  hand  to  Savinien  without 
the  old  mother  seeing  this  gesture. 

"Therefore  I  refused  without  even  consulting 
you." 

"And  why?"  said  Madame  de  Portenduere.  "It 
seems  to  me,  my  child,  that  a  notary's  is  a  fine 
position?" 

"I  prefer  my  peaceful  poverty,"  she  replied, 
"for,  compared  to  what  I  might  have  expected  from 
life,  it  is  wealth  to  me.  Besides,  my  old  nurse 
saves  me  many  worries,  and  I  am  not  going  to  ex- 
change the  present,  which  satisfies  me,  for  an  un- 
known future." 


The  next  day,  the  post  shed  the  poison  of  two 
anonymous  letters  into  two  hearts;  one  was  to  Ma- 
dame de  Portenduere,  the  other  to  Ursule.  This  is 
the  one  received  by  the  old  lady : 

"  You  love  your  son,  you  want  to  establish  him  as  befits 
the  name  he  bears,  and  you  encourage  his  fancy  for  a  penni- 
less and  ambitious  young  girl,  by  receiving  at  your  house  one 
Ursule,  daughter  of  a  military  bandsman;  whilst  you  could 
marry  him  to  Mademoiselle  du  Rouvre,  whose  two  uncles, 
Messieurs  le  Marquis  de  Ronquerolles  and  the  Chevalier  du 
Rouvre,  each  possessing  thirty  thousand  francs  a  year,  in- 
tend to  settle  it  upon  their  niece  in  her  marriage  contract  so  as 
to  avoid  leaving  their  fortune  to  that  old  fool,  Monsieur  du 
Rouvre,  who  squanders  everything.  Madame  de  Serizy, 
Clementine  du  Rouvre's  aunt,  who  has  just  lost  her  only  son 
in  the  Algerian  campaign,  will  doubtless  also  adopt  her  niece. 
Some  one  who  wishes  you  well  believes  that  Savinien  would 
be  accepted." 

This  is  the  letter  written  to  Ursule  : 

"  DEAR  URSULE, 

"  In  Nemours  there  is  a  young  man  who  worships  you,  who 
cannot  see  you  working  at  your  windows  without  an  emotion 
which  proves  to  him  that  his  love  is  for  life.  This  young 
man  is  gifted  with  a  will  of  iron  and  a  perseverance  that  noth- 
ing discourages ;  so  receive  his  love  favorably,  for  he  has  none 
but  the  purest  intentions,  and  humbly  asks  for  your  hand  in 
the  desire  of  making  you  happy.  His  fortune,  though  already 
suitable,  is  nothing  compared  to  that  which  he  will  give  you 
when  you  are  his  wife.  One  day  you  will  be  received  at 
(271) 


272  URSULE  MIROUET 

Court  as  the  wife  of  a  minister,  and  one  of  the  highest  in 
the  land.  As  he  can  see  you  every  day  without  your  being 
able  to  see  him,  put  one  of  La  Bougival's  pots  of  carnations 
in  the  window ;  in  this  way  you  will  have  told  him  that  he 
may  call." 

Ursule  burnt  this  letter  without  mentioning  it  to 
Savinien.  Two  days  after  she  received  another 
letter,  thus  worded: 

"You  were  wrong,  dear  Ursule,  not  to  answer  him  who 
loves  you  better  than  his  life.  You  think  you  will  marry 
Savinien,  but  you  deceive  yourself  strangely.  This  marriage 
will  never  take  place,  Madame  de  Portenduere,  who  will  no 
longer  receive  you  at  her  house,  is  going  this  morning  to 
Rouvre,  on  foot,  in  spite  of  the  condition  of  suffering  she  is 
in,  to  ask  the  hand  of  Mademoiselle  du  Rouvre  for  Savinien. 
Savinien  will  finally  yield.  How  can  he  object?  the  young 
lady's  uncles  are  securing  their  fortune  on  their  niece  by  set- 
tlement. This  fortune  consists  of  sixty  thousand  francs  a 
year." 

This  letter  devastated  Ursule's  heart  by  teaching 
her  the  tortures  of  jealousy,  a  suffering  hitherto 
unknown,  which,  in  an  organization  so  fine  and  sen- 
sitive to  pain,  clouded  the  present,  future  and  even 
the  past  with  grief.  From  the  moment  she  had 
this  fatal  paper,  she  remained  in  the  doctor's  arm- 
chair, her  gaze  fixed  upon  space,  lost  in  a  sorrowful 
dream.  In  one  instant  she  felt  the  chill  of  death  in- 
stead of  the  ardor  of  glorious  life.  Alas!  it  was 
worse:  in  reality  it  was  the  cruel  awakening  of  the 
dead  finding  that  there  is  no  God,  the  masterpiece  of 
that  singular  genius  called  Jean-Paul.  Four  times 


URSULE  MIROUET  273 

La  Bougival  tried  to  make  Ursule  eat  her  breakfast, 
and  saw  her  take  up  the  bread  and  leave  it,  unable 
to  carry  it  to  her  lips.  When  she  ventured  a  re- 
monstrance, Ursule  answered  her  with  a  gesture  of 
the  hand  and  one  terrible  "Hush!"  spoken  as  des- 
potically as  her  tone  had  hitherto  been  gentle.  La 
Bougival,  who  was  watching  her  mistress  through 
the  glass  window  of  the  door  of  communication, 
observed  that  she  was  alternately  as  burning  red  as 
the  fever  that  consumed  her,  and  as  violet  as  the 
chill  that  followed  the  fever.  This  condition  grew 
worse  about  four  o'clock,  when  Ursule  got  up  every 
moment  to  see  if  Savinien  was  coming  or  not  com- 
ing. Jealousy  and  doubt  strip  love  of  all  bashful- 
ness.  Ursule,  who  would  not  hitherto  have  allowed 
her  passion  to  be  betrayed  by  a  gesture,  put  on  her 
hat,  her  little  shawl,  and  rushed  out  into  her  corri- 
dor to  go  and  meet  Savinien,  but  some  remnant  of 
modesty  forced  her  back  into  her  little  parlor. 
There  she  wept  When  the  cure  called  in  the  even- 
ing, the  poor  nurse  stopped  him  on  the  threshold. 

"Ah!  Monsieur  le  Cure,  I  don't  know  what  is  the 
matter  with  mademoiselle;  she — " 

"I  know,"  replied  the  priest  sadly,  thus  silencing 
the  frightened  nurse. 

The  Abbe  Chaperon  then  told  Ursule  what  she 
had  not  dared  ascertain.  Madame  de  Portenduere 
had  gone  to  dine  at  Le  Rouvre. 

"And  Savinien?" 

"Also." 

Ursule  gave  a  nervous  start  which  made  the  Abbe 

18 


274  URSULE  MIROUET 

Chaperon  shiver  as  if  he  had  received  the  discharge 
of  an  electrical  jar,  and  moreover  felt  himself 
strongly  stirred  to  the  heart 

"And  so  we  shall  not  go  to  her  house  to-night," 
said  the  cure,  "but,  my  child,  you  would  do  well 
not  to  go  there  any  more.  The  old  lady  would  re- 
ceive you  in  such  a  way  as  to  hurt  your  pride.  We 
who  had  led  her  to  listen  to  the  mention  of  your 
marriage  do  not  know  from  whence  blows  the  wind 
which  has  changed  her  all  in  a  moment." 

"I  am  prepared  for  everything,  and  am  no  longer 
astonished  at  anything,"  said  Ursule  in  tones  of 
conviction.  "In  extremes  of  this  kind  it  is  a  great 
consolation  to  feel  that  one  has  not  offended  God." 

"Submit  yourself,  my  dear  daughter,  without 
searching  out  the  ways  of  Providence,"  said  the 
cure. 

"I  do  not  wish  to  suspect  Monsieur  de  Porten- 
duere's  character  unjustly — " 

"Why  do  you  no  longer  call  him  Savinien?" 
asked  the  cure,  who  observed  some  slight  bitterness 
in  Ursule's  accents. 

"My  dear  Savinien's,"  she  resumed,  weeping. 
"Yes,  my  kind  friend,"  she  continued,  sobbing,  "a 
voice  keeps  telling  me  that  his  heart  is  as  noble  as 
his  blood.  Not  only  has  he  confessed  to  me  that  he 
loved  me  above  everything,  but  he  has  proved  it  to 
me  by  infinite  delicacy  and  by  heroically  restraining 
his  ardent  passion.  When  he  recently  took  the 
hand  that  I  held  out  to  him  when  Monsieur  Bon- 
grand  was  suggesting  that  notary  as  a  husband  for 


URSULE  MIROUET  275 

me,  I  swear  to  you  it  was  the  first  time  I  had  ever 
given  it  to  him.  If  he  began  with  a  joke  in  sending 
me  a  kiss  across  the  street,  his  affection  since  then 
has  never,  as  you  know,  gone  beyond  the  strictest 
bounds;  but  I  may  tell  you  who  can  read  my  soul — 
save  for  the  corner  which  is  kept  for  the  angels' 
eyes — that  this  feeling  is  the  element  of  many  a 
merit  to  me;  it  has  enabled  me  to  accept  my  mis- 
fortunes, it  has  perhaps  softened  the  bitterness  of 
the  irreparable  loss  which  I  mourn  by  my  dress 
rather  than  in  my  heart!  Oh!  I  have  been  wrong! 
Yes,  love  in  me  was  stronger  than  my  gratitude  to- 
ward my  godfather,  and  God  has  avenged  him.  How 
could  it  be  helped !  I  respected  myself  as  Savinien's 
future  wife;  I  was  too  proud,  and  it  may  be  that 
God  has  punished  that  pride.  God  alone,  as  you 
have  told  me,  ought  to  be  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  our  actions." 

The  cure  was  touched  at  the  tears  rolling  down 
her  face,  already  growing  pale.  The  more  the  poor 
girl  seemed  secure,  the  more  she  failed. 

"But,"  she  continued,  "once  I  return  to  my 
orphaned  condition  I  shall  be  able  to  resume  the 
feelings.  After  all,  could  I  be  a  stone  round  the 
neck  of  the  man  I  love?  What  could  he  do  here? 
Who  am  I  to  aspire  to  him  ?  Besides,  do  I  not  love 
him  with  so  divine  a  love  that  it  would  go  as  far  as 
the  entire  sacrifice  of  my  happiness  and  hopes? — 
And  you  know  I  have  often  reproached  myself  for 
founding  my  love  upon  a  grave,  for  knowing  it  to 
be  deferred  until  after  this  old  lady's  death.  If 


276  URSULE  MIROUET 

Savinien  is  made  happy  and  rich  by  another,  I 
have  just  enough  to  pay  my  dowry  to  the  con- 
vent which  I  shall  enter  at  once.  There  should  no 
more  be  two  loves  in  a  woman's  heart  than  there 
are  two  Masters  in  Heaven.  A  religious  life  would 
have  attractions  for  me." 

"He  could  not  let  his  mother  go  alone  to  Le 
Rouvre,"  said  the  good  priest  gently. 

"Do  not  let  us  talk  any  more  about  it,  my  kind 
Monsieur  Chaperon;  I  shall  write  to  him  to-night 
to  set  him  free.  I  am  delighted  to  have  to  shut  up 
the  windows  of  this  parlor." 

And  she  informed  the  old  man  of  the  anonymous 
letters  whilst  telling  him  that  she  would  not  en- 
courage her  unknown  lover's  advances. 

"Ah !  it  is  an  anonymous  letter  which  has  induced 
Madame  de  Portenduere  to  go  to  Le  Rouvre,"  cried 
the  cure,  "there  is  no  doubt  that  you  are  being  per- 
secuted by  wicked  people." 

"But  why?  Neither  Savinien  nor  I  have  done 
harm  to  anyone,  and  we  are  not  injuring  anybody's 
interests  here." 

"Well,  little  one,  we  will  take  advantage  of  this 
explosion  which  has  broken  up  our  party,  to  arrange 
our  poor  friend's  library.  The  books  are  in  a  heap; 
Bongrand  and  I  will  put  them  in  order,  for  we  mean 
to  search  amongst  them.  Put  your  trust  in  God ; 
but  remember  also  that  you  have  two  devoted 
friends  in  the  kind  justice  of  the  peace  and  my- 
self." 

"That  is  a  great  deal,"  she  said,  accompanying 


URSULE  MIROUET  277 

the  cure  as  far  as  the  threshold  of  the  entrance, 
stretching  her  neck  like  a  bird  looking  out  of  its 
nest,  still  hoping  to  see  Savinien. 

Just  then,  Minoret  and  Goupil,  returning  from 
some  walk  in  the  fields,  stopped  in  passing,  and  the 
doctor's  heir  said  to  Ursule : 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you,  cousin?  for  we 
are  always  cousins,  are  we  not  ?  You  seem  altered. " 

Goupil  was  casting  such  ardent  looks  at  Ursule 
that  she  was  frightened;  she  went  in  without  re- 
plying. 

"She  is  shy,"  said  Minoret  to  the  cure. 

"Mademoiselle  Mirouet  is  quite  right  not  to  talk 
to  men  on  her  doorstep;  she  is  too  young — " 

"Oh!"  said  Goupil,  "you  must  know  that  she 
does  not  lack  lovers." 

The  cure  had  hastened  to  bow  and  was  hurriedly 
walking  toward  the  Rue  des  Bourgeois. 

"Well!"  said  the  head  clerk  to  Minoret,  "it  is 
brewing !  She  is  already  as  white  as  death ;  but,  in  a 
fortnight,  she  will  have  left  the  town.  You  will  see. " 

"It's  better  to  have  you  for  a  friend  than  an 
enemy,"  cried  Minoret,  startled  by  the  cruel  smile 
which  gave  Goupil's  face  the  diabolical  expression 
ascribed  by  Joseph  Bridau  to  Goethe's  Mephis- 
topheles. 

"I  should  think  so,"  replied  Goupil.  "If  she 
does  not  marry  me  I  will  kill  her  with  sorrow." 

"Do  this,  young  man,  and  I  give  you  the  funds  to 
become  a  notary  in  Paris.  You  will  then  be  able  to 
marry  a  rich  woman — " 


278  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Poor  girl!  What  has  she  done  to  you  then?" 
asked  the  clerk,  surprised. 

"She  bores  me!"  said  Minoret  roughly. 

"Wait  till  Monday,  and  then  you  shall  see  how  I 
will  pester  her,"  rejoined  Goupil,  examining  the  old 
postmaster's  countenance. 

The  next  day,  the  old  Bougival  went  to  Savinien's 
and  said,  holding  out  a  letter : 

"I  do  not  know  what  the  dear  child  has  written 
to  you,  but  she  is  like  a  corpse  this  morning." 

From  this  letter  to  Savinien  cannot  one  imagine 
the  sufferings  that  had  beset  Ursule  during  the 
night? 

"  MY  DEAR  SAVINIEN, 

"  I  have  been  told  that  your  mother  wishes  you  to  marry 
Mademoiselle  du  Rouvre,  and  perhaps  she  is  right.  You  are 
now  between  a  life  of  what  is  almost  poverty  and  a  life  of 
wealth,  between  the  fiancle  of  your  heart  and  a  society  wife, 
between  obedience  to  your  mother's  and  your  own  choice,  for 
I  still  believe  that  you  have  chosen  me.  Savinien,  if  you 
have  any  determination  to  make,  I  want  it  to  be  made  in  all 
freedom  ;  I  give  you  back  the  word  you  gave,  not  to  me,  but 
to  yourself  at  a  moment  which  will  never  fade  from  my  mem- 
ory, and  which,  like  all  the  days  that  have  followed  since,  was 
of  angelic  purity  and  sweetness.  This  remembrance  is  enough 
for  my  lifetime.  Were  you  to  persist  in  your  vow,  my  happi- 
ness would  hereafter  be  troubled  by  a  dark  and  terrible  idea. 
In  the  midst  of  our  privations,  now  so  cheerfully  borne,  you 
might,  later  on,  think  to  yourself  that,  had  you  followed  the 
dictates  of  the  world,  all  might  have  been  very  different  for 
you.  Were  you  the  man  to  give  utterance  to  this  thought,  it 
would  mean  to  me  the  sentence  of  a  miserable  death ;  and, 
did  you  not  say  it,  I  should  suspect  the  slightest  cloud  that 


URSULE  MIROUET  279 

might  darken  your  forehead.  Dear  Savinien,  I  have  always 
liked  you  better  than  anyone  else  upon  earth.  And  I  might, 
since  my  godfather,  although  he  was  envious,  used  to  say : 
'  Love  him,  child !  you  will  surely  belong  to  each  other  some 
day.'  When  1  went  to  Paris  I  loved  you  hopelessly,  and  that 
feeling  contented  me.  1  do  not  know  if  I  can  return  to  it,  but 
1  shall  try.  After  all,  what  are  we  at  this  moment?  Brother 
and  sister.  Let  us  remain  so.  Marry  this  fortunate  girl,  who 
will  have  the  joy  of  giving  your  name  the  lustre  it  should 
have,  and  which,  according  to  your  mother,  I  should  diminish. 
You  will  never  hear  of  me  again.  The  world  will  commend 
you,  and  I  shall  never  blame  you  and  shall  always  love  you. 
So  good-bye." 


"Wait!  "  cried  the  young  man. 
He  motioned  to  La  Bougival  to  sit  down  and  he 
scrawled  these  few  words : 


"MY  DEAR  URSULE, 

"  Your  letter  breaks  my  heart,  because  you  have  needlessly 
given  yourself  much  pain,  and  because,  for  the  first  time,  our 
hearts  have  ceased  their  understanding.  If  you  are  not  my 
wife  it  is  because  I  cannot  yet  marry  without  my  mother's 
consent.  After  all,  is  not  eight  thousand  francs  a  year  In  a 
pretty  cottage  on  the  banks  of  the  Loing  a  fortune?  We  cal- 
culated that  with  La  Bougival  we  should  save  five  thousand 
francs  a  year !  One  night,  in  your  uncle's  garden,  you  al- 
lowed me  to  look  upon  you  as  my  fiance'e,  and  you  by  yourself 
cannot  break  our  mutual  bonds.  Need  I  tell  you  that  yester- 
day 1  plainly  told  Monsieur  du  Rouvre  that  even  if  I  were  free 
I  would  not  accept  my  fortune  from  a  young  woman  whom  I 
did  not  know.  My  mother  refuses  to  see  you  again,  I  lose 
the  happiness  of  our  evenings,  but  do  not  curtail  the  short 
time  I  speak  to  you  at  your  window.  Till  to-night.  Nothing 
can  separate  us." 


280  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Go,  old  friend.  She  must  not  be  anxious  one 
moment  too  long — " 

That  evening  at  four  o'clock,  returning  from  the 
daily  walk  he  took  on  purpose  to  pass  Ursule's 
house,  Savinien  found  his  mistress  somewhat  pale 
from  such  sudden  upsets. 

"It  seems  to  me  I  have  never  known  till  now 
what  pleasure  it  is  to  see  you,"  she  said  to  him. 

"You  once  said  to  me, "  replied  Savinien,  smiling, 
"for  I  remember  all  your  words,  that 'Love  does  not 
thrive  without  patience,  I  will  wait!'  Then,  dear 
child,  have  you  divided  love  from  faith  ?  Ah !  this 
is  the  end  of  all  our  quarrels.  You  declared  you 
loved  me  better  than  I  love  you.  Have  1  ever 
doubted  you?"  he  asked,  offering  her  a  nosegay  of 
wild  flowers  so  arranged  as  to  convey  his  thoughts. 

"You  have  no  reason  to  doubt  me,"  she  replied, 
"and  besides,  you  do  not  know  all,"  she  added  in  a 
troubled  voice. 

She  had  refused  all  letters  from  the  post.  But, 
without  her  being  able  to  guess  by  what  witchcraft 
the  thing  had  happened,  a  few  moments  after  the  de- 
parture of  Savinien,  whom  she  had  watched  turning 
from  the  Rue  des  Bourgeois  into  the  Grand 'Rue,  she 
had  found  a  paper  on  her  armchair  on  which  was  writ- 
ten :  "  Tremble!  the  despised  lover  will  be  worse  than  a 
tiger."  In  spite  of  Savinien's  entreaties  she  refused, 
through  caution,  to  confide  the  terrible  secret  of  her 
fear  to  him.  It  was  only  the  unspeakable  pleasure 
of  seeing  Savinien  again  after  having  thought  she 
had  lost  him  that  could  make  her  forget  the  deadly 


URSULE  MIROUET  281 

chill  which  had  just  seized  her.  To  everybody  it 
is  horrible  torture  to  wait  for  indefinite  calamity. 
Suffering  then  assumes  the  proportions  of  the  un- 
known, which  is  certainly  the  infinite  of  the  soul. 
But,  to  Ursule,  it  was  the  very  greatest  misery. 
She  inwardly  experienced  fearful  starts  at  the 
slightest  noise,  she  mistrusted  silence,  and  sus- 
pected her  walls  of  complicity.  At  last  her  peaceful 
sleep  became  disturbed.  Goupil,  completely  igno- 
rant of  the  flower-like  delicacy  of  such  a  constitu- 
tion, had  yet  through  the  instinct  of  evil,  discovered 
the  poison  that  was  to  blight  and  kill  her.  And 
yet,  the  following  day  passed  without  any  surprise. 
Ursule  played  the  piano  very  late  and  went  to  bed 
almost  reassured  and  overcome  with  sleep.  About 
midnight,  she  was  awakened  by  a  concert  composed 
of  a  clarionette,  a  hautboy,  a  flute,  a  cornopean,  a 
trombone,  a  bassoon,  a  flageolet  and  a  triangle.  All 
the  neighbors  were  at  the  windows.  The  poor  child, 
already  startled  at  seeing  people  in  the  road,  re- 
ceived a  terrible  shock  upon  hearing  a  man's  hoarse, 
vulgar  voice  crying: 

"For  pretty  Ursule  Mirouet  from  her  lover!" 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  the  whole  town  was  in 
an  uproar,  and  as  Ursule  entered  and  left  the  church 
she  saw  numerous  groups  in  the  market-place  gos- 
siping about  her  and  evincing  a  horrible  curiosity. 
The  serenade  set  all  tongues  going,  for  everyone 
was  lost  in  conjecture.  Ursule  reached  her  house 
more  dead  than  alive  and  did  not  go  out  again,  the 
cure  having  advised  her  to  say  vespers  at  home. 


282  URSULE  MIROUET 

Upon  entering  she  saw  a  letter  slipped  under  the 
door  of  the  brick-tiled  corridor  leading  from  the  road 
into  the  yard;  she  picked  it  up,  and  read  it,  im- 
pelled by  the  desire  to  find  some  explanation  within. 
The  least  sensitive  of  beings  can  imagine  what  she 
must  have  felt  upon  reading  these  awful  lines: 

"  Make  up  your  mind  to  become  my  wife,  rich  and  adored. 
I  want  you.  If  I  do  not  have  you  alive  I  will  have  you  dead. 
To  your  refusal  you  may  attribute  the  misfortunes  which  will 
overtake  none  but  yourself. 

"  From  him  who  loves  you  and  to  whom  you 
will  belong  some  day." 

Strange!  at  the  very  moment  that  the  gentle, 
tender  victim  of  this  plot  was  crushed  like  a  broken 
flower,  Mesdemoiselles  Massin,  Dionisand  Cremiere 
were  envying  her  lot. 

"She  is  very  lucky, "  they  were  saying.  "Every- 
one is  thinking  about  her,  her  fancies  are  flattered, 
and  she  is  being  discussed !  From  what  they  say 
the  serenade  must  have  been  charming!  There 
was  a  cornopean!" 

"What  is  a  cornopean?" 

"A  new  instrument!  look  here,  as  big  as  this," 
said  Angeline  Cremiere  to  Pamela  Massin. 

In  the  morning  Savinien  had  gone  as  far  as  Fon- 
tainebleau  trying  to  find  out  who  had  asked  for  the 
bandsmen  from  the  regiment  in  garrison;  but,  as 
there  were  two  men  to  each  instrument,  it  was  im- 
possible to  recognize  those  who  had  gone  to  Ne- 
mours. The  colonel  gave  orders  forbidding  the 


URSULE  MIROUET  283 

bandsmen  to  play  for  private  persons  without  his 
permission.  The  young  nobleman  had  an  interview 
with  the  Attorney  for  the  Crown,  Ursule's  guardian, 
and  explained  to  him  the  seriousness  of  such  scenes 
for  so  delicate  and  frail  a  young  girl,  whilst  begging 
him  to  discover  the  author  of  this  serenade  through 
all  the  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  courts.  Three 
days  after,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  three  violins, 
a  flute,  a  guitar  and  a  hautboy  gave  a  second  sere- 
nade. This  time,  the  musicians  fled  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Montargis,  where  there  happened  to  be  a 
company  of  comedians  at  that  time.  A  harsh, 
intoxicated  voice  had  cried  between  two  pieces: 
"To  the  daughter  of  the  bandmaster  Mirouet!" 
In  this  way  all  Nemours  learnt  the  profession  of 
Ursule's  father,  the  secret  so  carefully  guarded  by 
old  Doctor  Minoret. 

This  time  Savinien  did  not  go  to  Montargis. 
During  the  day  he  received  an  anonymous  letter 
from  Paris,  in  which  he  had  read  this  horrible  pro- 
phecy : 

"  You  will  not  marry  Ursule.  If  you  want  her  to  live, 
make  haste  to  yield  her  to  one  who  loves  her  more  than  you 
do ;  for  he  has  turned  musician  and  artist  to  please  her,  and 
would  rather  see  her  dead  than  know  her  to  be  your  wife." 

At  that  time  the  Nemours  doctor  came  three  times 
a  day  to  see  Ursule,  whom  these  occult  persecu- 
tions had  placed  in  peril  of  death.  Feeling  herself 
thrust  into  a  slough  by  some  infernal  hand,  this 
sweet  young  girl  maintained  a  martyr's  attitude; 


284  URSULE  MIROUET 

she  remained  in  profound  silence,  raised  her  eyes 
to  Heaven  and  wept  no  more;  she  was  awaiting 
fresh  shocks  with  fervent  prayers  and  intercessions 
for  him  who  was  dealing  death  to  her. 

"I  am  glad  not  to  be  able  to  go  down  to  the  par- 
lor," she  said  to  Messieurs  Bongrand  and  Chaperon, 
who  left  her  as  little  as  possible,  "he  would  come, 
and  I  feel  I  am  unworthy  of  the  looks  with  which 
he  always  blesses  me!  Do  you  think  he  doubts 
me?" 

"Why,  if  Savinien  does  not  discover  the  author 
of  these  infamies,  he  intends  going  to  demand  the 
interference  of  the  police  in  Paris,"  said  Bongrand. 

"The  unknown  must  know  that  I  am  wounded  to 
death,"  she  replied,  "they  will  stay  quiet." 

The  cure,  Bongrand  and  Savinien  were  lost  in 
conjecture  and  supposition.  Savinien,  Tiennette, 
La  Bougival  and  two  persons  devoted  to  the  cure 
turned  spy  and  were  on  their  guard  for  a  week;  but 
Goupil,  who  was  plotting  alone,  was  not  to  be  be- 
trayed by  any  indiscretion.  The  justice  of  the 
peace  was  the  first  to  think  that  the  author  of  the 
mischief  was  afraid  at  his  own  work.  Ursule  was 
growing  as  white  and  feeble  as  consumptive  young 
English  girls.  Everyone  relaxed  his  attention. 
There  were  no  more  serenades  or  letters.  Savinien 
attributed  the  abandonment  of  these  obnoxious 
means  to  the  secret  investigations  of  the  public 
prosecutor,  to  whom  he  had  sent  the  letters  received 
by  Ursule,  by  his  mother  and  himself.  This  truce 
did  not  last  long.  One  morning,  toward  the  middle 


URSULE  MIROUET  285 

of  July,  when  the  doctor  had  checked  Ursule's  ner- 
vous fever,  and  just  when  she  was  plucking  up 
courage  once  more,  a  rope-ladder  was  found  fastened 
to  her  window.  The  postilion  who  had  driven  the 
night  mail  declared  that  a  little  man  was  about  to 
climb  down  just  as  he  was  passing;  and  that,  in 
spite  of  his  desire  to  stop,  his  horses — having  started 
down  the  incline  of  the  bridge  at  whose  corner 
Ursule's  house  stood — had  carried  him  well  on  be- 
yond Nemours.  One  opinion  originating  in  the 
Dionis  circle  attributed  these  manoeuvres  to  the 
Marquis  du  Rouvre,  then  in  great  difficulties,  Mas- 
sin  having  bills  of  exchange  upon  him,  and  who, 
by  the  speedy  marriage  of  his  daughter  to  Savinien 
would,  so  it  was  said,  preserve  his  chateau  Du 
Rouvre  from  his  creditors.  It  was  said  that  Madame 
de  Portenduere  was  delighted  at  anything  that 
could  expose,  discredit  or  disgrace  Ursule;  but,  in 
the  presence  of  this  early  death,  the  old  lady  found 
herself  almost  vanquished.  The  Cure  Chaperon  was 
so  keenly  affected  by  this  last  trick,  that  he  felt 
sufficiently  ill  to  remain  at  home  for  a  few  days. 
Poor  Ursule,  who  had  suffered  a  relapse  from  this 
odious  attempt,  received  a  letter  from  the  cure 
through  the  post,  which  they  had  not  refused  upon 
recognizing  the  handwriting: 

"  MY  CHILD, 

"  Leave  Nemours,  and  so  defeat  the  malice  of  your  un- 
known enemies.  Perhaps  they  are  trying  to  endanger  Savi- 
nien's  life.  I  will  tell  you  more  when  I  am  able  to  go  and  see 
you." 


286  URSULE  MIROUET 

This  note  was  signed :  Your  devoted  CHAPERON. 

When  Savinien,  almost  beside  himself,  went  to 
see  the  cure,  the  poor  priest  read  the  letter  over 
and  over,  so  horrified  was  he  at  the  perfection  with 
which  his  writing  and  signature  had  been  copied ; 
for  he  had  not  written  at  all,  and,  had  he  written, 
he  would  not  have  made  use  of  the  post  to  send  his 
letter  to  Ursule.  The  deadly  condition  to  which 
this  last  atrocity  reduced  Ursule  drove  Savinien  to 
apply  once  more  to  the  public  prosecutor  while 
taking  him  the  cure's  forged  letter. 

"A  murder  is  being  committed  through  means  for 
which  the  law  has  in  no  way  provided,  and  upon  an 
orphan  whom  the  Code  has  entrusted  to  you  as 
a  ward,"  said  the  nobleman  to  the  magistrate. 

"If  you  discover  the  means  of  repression,"  re- 
plied the  public  prosecutor,  "I  will  adopt  them; 
but  I  do  not  know  of  any!  The  anonymous  villain 
has  given  the  best  advice.  Mademoiselle  Mirouet 
must  be  sent  here  to  the  nuns  of  the  Adoration  du 
Saint-Sacrement.  In  the  meanwhile,  at  my  request, 
the  superintendent  of  the  police  at  Fontainebleau 
will  authorize  you  to  bear  arms  for  your  defence. 
I  went  myself  to  Le  Rouvre,  and  Monsieur  du 
Rouvre  was  very  justly  indignant  at  the  suspicions 
hovering  over  him.  Minoret,  my  deputy's  father, 
is  bargaining  with  him  for  his  chateau.  Made- 
moiselle du  Rouvre  is  to  marry  a  rich  Polish  count. 
In  fact,  Monsieur  du  Rouvre  was  leaving  the  country 
the  very  day  upon  which  I  went  there,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  execution  of  an  arrest." 


URSULE  MIROUET  287 

Desire,  questioned  by  his  chief,  did  not  dare  to 
express  his  thoughts;  he  recognized  Goupil! 
Goupil  alone  was  capable  of  carrying  on  any  action 
which  skirted  the  penal  code  without  falling  over 
the  precipice  of  any  one  article.  Impunity,  secrecy 
and  success  increased  Goupil's  audacity.  The  ter- 
rible clerk  compelled  Massin,  now  his  dupe,  to  perse- 
cute the  Marquis  du  Rouvre,  so  as  to  force  the 
nobleman  to  sell  the  remainder  of  his  estate  to  Mi- 
noret  After  having  entered  into  negotiations  with 
a  notary  at  Sens,  he  resolved  to  attempt  a  final 
stroke  to  obtain  Ursule.  He  meant  to  imitate  two 
or  three  young  men  in  Paris  who  owed  their  wives 
and  their  fortunes  to  abduction.  The  services  ren- 
dered to  Minoret,  Massin  and  Cremiere,  and  the 
protection  of  Dionis,  Mayor  of  Nemours,  would 
enable  him  to  hush  up  the  affair.  He  immediately 
decided  to  throw  off  the  mask,  believing  Ursule  to 
be  incapable  of  resisting  him  in  the  state  of  weak- 
ness to  which  he  had  reduced  her.  Nevertheless, 
before  risking  the  last  stroke  of  his  ignoble  scheme, 
he  deemed  it  necessary  to  have  an  explanation  at 
Le  Rouvre,  where  he  accompanied  Minoret,  who  was 
going  there  for  the  first  time  since  the  signing  of  the 
contract  Minoret  had  just  received  a  confidential 
letter  in  which  his  son  asked  for  information  as  to 
what  was  happening  about  Ursule,  before  coming 
himself  with  the  public  prosecutor  to  take  her  to  a 
convent,  in  order  to  protect  her  from  any  fresh  out- 
rage. The  deputy  begged  his  father,  in  the  event 
of  this  persecution  being  the  work  of  one  of  their 


288  URSULE  MIROUET 

friends,  to  give  such  a  one  some  good  advice.  If 
justice  could  not  always  punish,  she  would  end  by 
knowing  all  and  would  keep  good  account  Minoret 
had  reached  a  great  goal.  Henceforth  indisputable 
proprietor  of  the  Chateau  du  Rouvre,  one  of  the 
finest  in  Le  Gatinais,  he  combined  an  income  of 
forty  odd  thousand  francs,  with  beautiful  and  rich 
estates  around  the  park.  The  colossus  could  defy 
Goupil.  In  fact,  he  expected  to  live  in  the 
country,  where  the  recollection  of  Ursule  would  not 
trouble  him  any  more. 

"My  boy,"  he  said  to  Goupil  as  he  was  walking 
up  and  down  the  terrace,  "leave  my  cousin  in 
peace!" 

"Bah!"  said  the  clerk,  unable  to  make  anything 
of  this  odd  behavior,  for  stupidity  also  has  its 
depths. 

"Oh!  I  am  not  ungrateful;  you  got  me  this  fine 
chateau  of  brick  and  cut  stone  for  two  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  francs  such  as  nowadays  could  not 
be  built  for  two  hundred  thousand  crowns,  the 
chateau  farm,  the  preserves,  the  park,  the  gardens 
and  woods — Well,  then — yes,  upon  my  word!  I 
will  give  you  ten  per  cent,  twenty  thousand  francs, 
with  which  you  can  buy  an  attorney's  practice  in 
Nemours.  I  guarantee  your  marriage  with  one  of 
the  little  Cremieres,  the  eldest." 

"The  one  who  talks  of  the  cornopean?"  cried 
Goupil. 

"But  my  cousin  will  give  her  thirty  thousand 
francs,"  returned  Minoret,  "you  see,  my  boy,  you 


URSULE  MIROUET  289 

are  born  to  be  an  attorney  as  I  was  made  to  be  a 
postmaster,  and  one  must  always  follow  one's  voca- 
tion." 

"Well  then, "  rejoined  Goupil,his  hopes  shattered, 
"here  are  the  stamps,  sign  acceptances  for  twenty 
thousand  francs  so  that  I  can  lay  the  money  down." 

Minoret  had  the  half-yearly  eighteen  thousand 
francs  coming  in  from  the  bonds  about  which  his 
wife  did  not  know;  in  this  way  he  thought  he  could 
get  rid  of  Goupil,  and  signed.  The  head  clerk,  see- 
ing the  foolish  and  colossal  Machiavel  of  the  Rue  des 
Bourgeois  in  a  fit  of  seigniorial  fever,  threw  him  an 
"Au  revoir!"  as  a  farewell  and  a  look  which  would 
have  terrified  any  but  a  silly  parvenu  gazing  from 
the  height  of  a  terrace  upon  the  gardens  and  mag- 
nificent roofs  of  a  chateau  built  in  the  style  in  vogue 
under  Louis  XIII. 

"Are  you  not  going  to  wait  for  me?"  he  cried, 
seeing  Goupil  walking  off. 

"You  will  meet  me  again  in  your  path,  papa!" 
replied  the  future  attorney,  thirsting  for  revenge 
and  longing  to  find  out  the  key  of  the  riddle  pre- 
sented to  his  mind  by  the  strange  zigzags  of  fat 
Minoret's  behavior. 


From  the  day  upon  which  the  most  infamous 
calumny  had  sullied  her  life,  Ursule,  a  victim  to  one 
of  those  unaccountable  illnesses  that  have  their  seat 
in  the  soul,  was  rapidly  traveling  toward  Death. 
Extremely  pale,  speaking  a  few  slow  and  feeble 
words  at  rare  intervals  only,  casting  looks  of  gentle 
indifference,  everything  about  her,  even  her  brow, 
betrayed  one  devouring  thought  She  believed  that 
the  ideal  wreath  of  pure  flowers  which,  at  all  times, 
people  have  thought  to  see  on  a  virgin's  head,  had 
fallen.  In  the  silence  and  space  she  was  listening 
to  the  shameful  gossip,  the  spiteful  comments  and 
chuckles  of  the  little  town.  The  burden  was  too 
heavy  for  her,  and  her  innocence  was  too  delicate 
to  survive  such  bruises.  She  did  not  complain,  a 
mournful  smile  was  always  on  her  lips,  and  her 
eyes  were  often  raised  to  Heaven  as  if  appealing 
from  man's  injustice  to  the  Lord  of  angels.  When 
Goupil  got  back  to  Nemours,  Ursule  had  been  car- 
ried from  her  room  to  the  ground-floor  in  the  arms 
of  La  Bougival  and  the  doctor  of  Nemours.  A  great 
event  was  taking  place.  After  having  learnt  that 
this  young  girl  was  dying  like  an  ermine,  and  fur- 
thermore that  her  honor  was  less  harmed  than  was 
Clarissa  Harlowe's,  Madame  de  Portenduere  was 
coming  to  see  her  and  comfort  her.  The  sight  of 
her  son,  who  had  spent  the  whole  of  the  preceding 
(291) 


292  URSULE  MIROUET 

night  threatening  to  kill  himself,  had  unbent  the 
old  Bretonne.  Moreover,  Madame  de  Portenduere 
thought  it  befitting  her  dignity  to  give  courage  to 
so  pure  a  young  girl,  and  saw  that  her  visit  would 
counterbalance  all  the  harm  done  by  the  little  town. 
Her  opinion,  which  was  doubtless  more  powerful 
than  that  of  the  common  herd,  would  establish  the 
power  of  the  nobility.  This  overture,  announced 
by  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  had  worked  a  revolution  in 
Ursule  and  revived  hope  in  the  disheartened  doctor, 
who  was  talking  of  calling  for  a  consultation  with 
the  most  celebrated  doctors  in  Paris.  Ursule  had 
been  put  in  her  guardian's  armchair,  and  such  was 
the  character  of  her  beauty  that,  in  her  mourning 
and  suffering  she  looked  more  beautiful  than  at  any 
period  of  her  happy  life.  When  Savinien  appeared 
with  his  mother  on  his  arm,  the  young  invalid 
recovered  a  brilliant  color. 

"Do  not  get  up,  my  child,"  said  the  old  lady  in 
an  imperious  tone:  "ill  and  feeble  as  I  am  myself, 
I  wanted  to  come  and  see  you  to  tell  you  my  opinion 
of  what  is  happening;  I  consider  you  the  purest, 
holiest,  and  most  charming  girl  of  the  Gatinais,  and 
think  you  are  worthy  of  constituting  a  nobleman's 
happiness." 

At  first  Ursule  could  not  answer;  she  took  the 
withered  hands  of  Savinien's  mother  and  kissed 
them  while  covering  them  with  tears. 

"Ah!  madame,"  she  replied  in  a  weakened  voice, 
"I  should  never  have  had  the  boldness  to  think  of 
raising  myself  above  my  station  had  I  not  been 


URSULE  MIROUET  293 

encouraged  by  promises,  and  my  only  claim  was  an 
unbounded  affection ;  but  they  have  found  means  to 
separate  me  forever  from  him  whom  I  love;  they 
have  made  me  unworthy  of  him. — Never!"  she 
said,  with  a  sound  in  her  voice  which  struck  the 
spectators  painfully,  "never  will  I  consent  to  give 
to  anyone,  no  matter  who  it  may  be,  a  degraded 
hand,  a  tarnished  reputation.  I  loved  too  much — I 
may  confess  it  in  my  present  state — I  love  a  human 
creature  almost  as  much  as  God.  And  so  God — " 

"Come!  come!  my  dear,  do  not  slander  God! 
Come,  my  daughter,"  said  the  old  lady,  making  an 
effort,  "do  not  exaggerate  the  importance  of  an  in- 
famous joke  in  which  nobody  believes.  1  promise 
you,  you  will  live  and  you  will  be  happy." 

"You  will  be  happy!"  said  Savinien,  kneeling  in 
front  of  Ursule  and  kissing  her  hands,  "my  mother 
has  called  you  'my  daughter.1  " 

"That  will  do,"  said  the  doctor,  who  came  to  feel 
his  invalid's  pulse,  "do  not  kill  her  with  joy." 

At  that  moment,  Goupil,  finding  the  entrance  door 
ajar,  pushed  that  of  the  little  parlor  and  showed  his 
ugly  face  excited  with  the  thoughts  of  vengeance 
that  had  been  flourishing  in  his  heart  while  on 
his  way. 

"Monsieur  de  Portenduere !"  he  said  in  a  voice 
like  the  hissing  of  a  snake  that  is  driven  into  its  hole. 

"What  do  you  want?"  replied  Savinien,  rising. 

"I  want  a  word  with  you." 

Savinien  went  out  into  the  passage,  and  Goupil 
led  him  into  the  little  yard. 


294  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Swear  to  rne,  on  the  life  of  Ursule  whom  you 
love,  and  on  your  nobleman's  honor  that  you  think 
so  much  of,  that  you  will  act  as  if  I  had  never  told 
you  what  I  am  about  to  tell  you,  and  I  will  enlighten 
you  as  to  the  cause  of  the  persecutions  directed 
against  Mademoiselle  Mirouet" 

"Can  1  stop  them?" 

"Yes." 
'Can  I  avenge  them?" 

"On  the  author,  yes :  but  on  the  instrument,  no. " 

"Why  not?" 

"Well — the  instrument  is  myself — " 

Savinien  turned  pale. 

"I  have  just  caught  a  glimpse  of  Ursule — "  con- 
tinued the  clerk. 

"Ursule?"  said  the  nobleman,  looking  at  Goupil. 

"Mademoiselle  Mirouet,"  rejoined  Goupil,  ren- 
dered respectful  by  Savinien's  tone,  "and  I  would 
like  to  atone  with  my  blood  for  all  that  has  been 
done.  I  am  sorry — If  you  were  to  kill  me  in  a  duel 
or  any  other  way,  what  good  would  my  blood  do 
you?  Would  you  drink  it?  It  would  poison  you  at 
this  moment" 

This  man's  cool  reasoning  and  his  own  curiosity 
subdued  Savinien's  boiling  blood;  he  fixed  this 
quasi-hunchback  with  a  look  that  forced  him  to 
lower  his  eyes. 

"Then  who  employed  you  ?"  said  the  young  man. 

"Will  you  swear?" 

"Do  you  want  to  be  sure  nothing  will  be  done  to 
you?" 


URSULE  MIROUET  295 

"1  want  you  and  Mademoiselle  Mirouet  to  forgive 
me." 

"She  will  forgive  you,  but  I,  never!" 

"Well  then,  you  will  forget?" 

What  awful  power  reasoning  possesses  when 
backed  by  interest!  Two  men,  one  longing  to  rend 
the  other,  were  there,  in  a  small  courtyard,  a  finger's 
breadth  from  each  other,  forced  into  conversation, 
united  by  the  selfsame  feeling. 

"I  might  forgive  you,  but  I  should  not  forget" 

"That  won't  do,"  said  Goupil,  coldly. 

Savinien  lost  patience.  He  gave  his  face  a  slap 
which  re-echoed  in  the  courtyard,  nearly  upset 
Goupil,  and  made  him  stagger  himself. 

"I  only  get  what  I  deserve,"  said  Goupil,  "I  com- 
mitted a  piece  of  folly.  I  believed  you  to  be  nobler 
than  you  are.  You  have  abused  an  advantage  I  gave 
you — you  are  now  in  my  power!"  he  said,  darting 
a  spiteful  look  at  Savinien. 

"You  are  a  murderer!"  said  the  nobleman. 

"Not  more  than  the  knife  is  the  murderer!"  re- 
plied Goupil. 

"1  ask  your  pardon,"  said  Savinien. 

"Have  you  had  enough  revenge?"  said  Goupil, 
with  fierce  irony,  "will  you  go  no  further?" 

"Forgive  and  forget  on  both  sides, "  said  Savinien. 

"Your  hand?"  said  the  clerk,  holding  out  his  own 
to  the  nobleman. 

"Here  it  is,"  replied  Savinien,  swallowing  this 
shame  for  love  of  Ursule.  "But  speak;  who  urged 
you  on?" 


296  URSULE  MIROUET 

Goupil  was  examining,  as  it  were,  the  two  scales 
in  which  hung  on  the  one  side  Savinien's  slap,  and 
on  the  other,  his  hatred  for  Minoret  For  two  sec- 
onds he  was  undecided,  but  finally  a  voice  cried  to 
him.  "You  will  be  a  notary!"  and  he  replied: 

"Forget  and  forgive?  Yes,  on  both  sides,  mon- 
sieur," squeezing  the  nobleman's  hand. 

"Then  who  is  it  that  is  persecuting  Ursule?" 
said  Savinien. 

"Minoret!  he  would  have  liked  to  have  seen  her 
buried — Why?  I  do  not  know;  but  we  will  find  out 
the  reason.  Don't  mix  me  up  in  all  this,  I  could 
do  nothing  more  for  you  if  I  was  suspected.  Instead 
of  attacking  Ursule,  1  shall  defend  her ;  instead  of 
serving  Minoret,  I  shall  try  to  defeat  his  plans.  I 
live  only  to  ruin  him  and  destroy  him.  And  I  shall 
trample  him  under  foot,  I  shall  dance  on  his  carcass, 
I  will  play  dominoes  with  his  bones!  To-morrow, 
on  all  the  walls  of  Nemours,  Fontainebleau  and  Le 
Rouvre,  will  be  written  in  red  chalk :  Minoret  is  a 
thief.  Oh!  By — d!  I  will  make  him  burst  like  a 
mortar.  Now,  we  are  allied  by  an  indiscretion ;  well 
then,  if  you  like,  I  will  go  and  kneel  down  before 
Mademoiselle  Mirouet,  and  declare  to  her  that  1 
curse  the  mad  passion  that  was  urging  me  to  kill 
her,  I  will  implore  her  to  forgive  me.  That  will  do 
her  good !  The  justice  of  the  peace  and  the  cure  are 
there,  those  two  witnesses  will  be  enough;  but 
Monsieur  Bongrand  must  pledge  his  honor  not  to 
ruin  me  in  my  career.  I  have  prospects  now." 

"Wait  a  moment,  "replied  Savinien,  quite  stunned 


URSULE  MIROUET  297 

by  this  revelation.  "Ursule,  my  child,"  he  said 
as  he  came  into  the  parlor,  "the  author  of  all  your 
injury  is  horrified  at  his  work,  is  repentant  and 
wants  to  ask  your  pardon  in  the  presence  of  these 
gentlemen,  on  the  condition  that  all  shall  be  for- 
gotten." 

"What!  Goupil?"  at  once  said  the  cure,  the  jus- 
tice of  the  peace,  and  the  doctor. 

"Keep  the  secret,"  said  Ursule  laying  her  finger 
on  her  lips. 

Goupil  heard  these  words,  saw  Ursule's  move- 
ment, and  was  touched. 

"Mademoiselle,"  he  said  in  moving  tones,  "I 
wish  that  all  Nemours  could  now  hear  me  confess- 
ing to  you  that  an  unfortunate  passion  turned  my 
head,  and  suggested  crimes  to  me  that  deserve  the 
blame  of  honest  folk.  What  I  here  say,  I  shall 
everywhere  repeat  while  deploring  the  harm  caused 
by  wicked  jokes,  though  they  may  perhaps  have 
helped  to  hasten  your  happiness,"  he  said, 
somewhat  maliciously,  as  he  rose,  "as  I  see  Madame 
de  Portenduere  is  here." 

"That  is  right,  Goupil,"  said  the  cure,  "made- 
moiselle has  forgiven  you;  but  you  must  never  for- 
get that  you  nearly  became  a  murderer." 

"Monsieur  Bongrand,"  resumed  Goupil,  address- 
ing the  justice  of  the  peace,  "to-night  I  am  going  to 
negotiate  with  Lecoeur  for  his  practice ;  I  hope  that 
this  reparation  will  not  injure  me  in  your  esteem, 
and  that  you  will  second  my  application  to  the 
crown  office  and  the  minister." 


298  URSULE  MIROUET 

The  justice  of  the  peace  nodded  his  head  thought- 
fully, and  Goupil  left,  to  go  and  negotiate  for  the 
better  of  the  two  attorneys'  practices  in  Nemours. 
Everyone  remained  with  Ursule,  and  devoted  him- 
self all  through  the  evening  to  restoring  peace  and 
tranquillity  to  her  mind,  upon  which  the  satis- 
faction given  by  the  clerk  had  already  worked  a 
change. 

"All  Nemours  will  know  this,"  said  Bongrand. 

"You  see,  my  child,  that  God  was  not  angry  with 
you,"  said  the  cure. 

Minoret  was  rather  late  in  returning  from  Le 
Rouvre,  and  dined  late.  About  nine  o'clock,  at 
nightfall,  he  was  in  his  Chinese  pavilion,  digesting 
his  dinner  beside  his  wife,  with  whom  he  was 
making  plans  for  Desire's  future.  Desire  had  be- 
come very  steady  since  he  had  belonged  to  the 
magistracy;  he  was  working,  and  there  was  a 
chance  of  his  succeeding  the  public  prosecutor  of 
Fontainebleau,  who,  it  was  said,  was  being  pro- 
moted to  Melun.  A  wife  must  be  found  for  him, 
some  poor  girl  belonging  to  an  old  and  noble 
family;  he  might  then  attain  to  the  Paris  mag- 
istracy. Perhaps  they  might  have  him  elected 
deputy  for  Fontainebleau,  where  Zelie  thought  of 
going  to  settle  for  the  winter,  after  spending  the 
warm  weather  at  Le  Rouvre.  Whilst  inwardly  con- 
gratulating himself  on  having  arranged  all  for  the 
best,  Minoret  had  ceased  to  think  of  Ursule,  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  drama  which  he  had  begun 
so  simply  was  tangling  itself  in  a  terrible  manner. 


URSULE  MIROUET  299 

"Monsieur  de  Portenduere  is  there  and  wishes  to 
speak  to  you,"  announced  Cabirolle. 

"Show  him  in,"  replied  Zelie. 

The  twilight  darkness  prevented  Madame  Minoret 
from  noticing  the  sudden  pallor  of  her  husband,  who 
shivered  as  he  heard  the  creak  of  Savinien's  boots 
on  the  floor  of  the  gallery  which  had  once  been  the 
doctor's  library.  A  vague  presentiment  of  evil  ran 
through  the  despoiler's  veins.  Savinien  appeared, 
and  remained  standing,  his  hat  on  his  head,  his 
stick  in  his  hand,  his  arms  crossed  over  his  chest, 
motionless  in  front  of  the  husband  and  wife. 

"I  have  come  to  ask,  Monsieur  and  Madame  Mi- 
noret, your  reasons  for  so  infamously  tormenting 
a  young  girl  who,  as  the  whole  town  of  Nemours  is 
aware,  is  my  future  wife;  why  you  have  tried  to 
stain  her  honor;  why  you  desired  her  death,  and 
why  you  have  exposed  her  to  the  insults  of  such  a 
man  as  Goupil? — Answer  me." 

"How  funny  you  are,  Monsieur  Savinien,"  said 
Zelie,  "to  come  and  ask  us  to  explain  a  thing  which 
is  unaccountable  to  us !  I  care  no  more  for  Ursule 
than  for  the  year  '40.  Since  the  death  of  Uncle 
Minoret,  I  have  thought  no  more  of  her  than  of  my 
first  nightgown !  I  have  not  breathed  a  word  about 
her  to  Goupil,  who  is,  besides,  a  rogue  to  whom  I 
would  not  even  trust  the  interests  of  my  dog.  Well, 
Minoret,  why  don't  you  answer  ?  Are  you  going  to 
let  yourself  be  browbeaten  by  monsieur  and  accused 
of  infamies  that  are  beneath  you  ?  As  if  a  man 
who  has  forty-eight  thousand  francs  a  year  in 


300  URSULE  MIROUET 

landed  estate  round  a  castle  fit  for  a  prince  would 
condescend  to  such  nonsense!  Get  up  then,  you 
lie  there  like  a  limp  rag!" 

"I  do  not  know  what  monsieur  means,"  replied 
Minoret  at  last,  in  his  diminutive  voice,  the  trem- 
bling of  which  was  all  the  more  noticeable  on  ac- 
count of  its  shrillness.  "What  reason  should  I  have 
to  persecute  that  little  girl  ?  I  may  have  told 
Goupil  how  vexed  I  was  to  see  her  in  Nemours ;  my 
son  Desire  was  in  love  with  her,  and  I  did  not  at 
all  like  her  as  a  wife  for  him,  that  is  all." 

"Goupil  has  told  me  all,  Monsieur  Minoret." 

There  was  a  moment  of  awful  silence,  in  which 
the  three  scrutinized  each  other.  Zelie  had  seen 
the  nervous  working  of  her  giant's  fat  face. 

"Although  you  are  nothing  but  insects,  I  intend 
wreaking  the  most  fearful  vengeance  upon  you,  and 
I  know  how  to  do  it,"  pursued  the  nobleman.  "It 
is  not  from  you,  a  man  of  sixty-seven,  that  I  shall 
demand  satisfaction  for  the  insults  offered  to  Made- 
moiselle Mirouet,  but  from  your  son.  The  first  time 
that  Monsieur  Minoret  junior  sets  foot  in  Nemours, 
we  shall  meet;  he  will  have  to  fight  with  me,  and 
he  will  fight!  or  else  he  will  be  so  disgraced,  that 
he  will  never  show  his  face  anywhere  again;  if  he 
does  not  come  to  Nemours  I  shall  go  to  Fontaine- 
bleau,  I  will !  I  will  get  some  satisfaction.  It  shall 
not  be  said  that  you  were  allowed  to  make  a  cow- 
ardly attempt  to  dishonor  a  defenceless  young  girl." 

"But  Goupil's  accusations — are— not— "  said 
Minoret. 


URSULE  MIROUET  301 

"Do  you  want  me  to  bring  him  face  to  face  with 
you?"  cried  Savinien,  cutting  him  short.  "Be- 
lieve me,  do  not  spread  the  matter;  it  lies  between 
you,  Goupil  and  myself;  leave  it  as  it  is  and  God 
shall  decide  it  in  the  duel  that  I  shall  do  your  son 
the  honor  to  propose." 

"But  it  shall  not  be  settled  in  this  way!"  cried 
Zelie.  "Ah!  you  think  lam  going  to  let  Desire 
fight  with  you,  an  old  sailor  whose  trade  was  to 
draw  swords  and  pistols!  If  you  have  anything 
against  Minoret,  here  is  Minoret,  take  Minoret  and 
fight  with  Minoret!  But  is  my  boy,  who,  as  you 
say,  is  innocent  of  this,  to  bear  the  penalty  ? — Before 
that  happens,  one  of  my  dogs  shall  be  after  you,  my 
fine  sir !  Now  then,  Minoret,  you  stick  there  as 
stupid  as  a  great  ninny !  Here  you  are  in  your  own 
house  and  you  allow  monsieur  to  keep  on  his  hat 
before  your  wife !  And  you,  my  young  gentleman, 
will  kindly  clear  out.  A  man's  house  is  his  castle. 
I  don't  know  what  you  mean  by  your  nonsense; 
but  you  had  better  go;  and,  if  you  touch  Desire, 
you  will  have  to  deal  with  me,  you  and  your  fool  of 
an  Ursule." 

And  she  rang  the  bell  violently,  calling  to  her 
servants. 

"Think  well  about  what  I  have  said!"  repeated 
Savinien,  who,  unheeding  Zelie's  tirade,  went  out, 
leaving  this  sword  of  Damocles  hanging  over  the 
couple. 

"Now  then!  Minoret,"  said  Zelie  to  her  husband, 
"will  you  explain  the  meaning  of  this?  A  young 


302  URSULE  MIROUET 

man  does  not  come  without  any  reason  into  a  pri- 
vate house  and  make  that  terrible  uproar  and  de- 
mand the  blood  of  a  son  of  the  family." 

"It  is  some  trick  on  the  part  of  that  horrid  ape 
Goupil,  whom  I  had  promised  to  help  in  having  him 
appointed  notary  if  he  got  me  Le  Rouvre  cheap.  I 
gave  him  ten  per  cent,  twenty  thousand  francs  in 
bills  of  exchange,  and  no  doubt  he  is  not  satisfied." 

"Yes;  but  what  reason  could  he  have  had  before 
to  plot  serenades  and  insults  against  Ursule?" 

"He  wanted  to  marry  her." 

"A  penniless  girl?  he?  Oh!  indeed!  Look  here, 
Minoret,  you  are  talking  nonsense!  and  you  are 
naturally  too  stupid  to  do  so  successfully,  my  boy. 
There  is  something  underneath  all  this,  and  you 
will  tell  me." 

"There  is  nothing." 

"There  is  nothing?  And  I,  I  tell  you  you  are  lying, 
and  we  shall  see!" 

"Will  you  let  me  alone?" 

"I  shall  turn  the  tap  of  that  fountain  of  spite  that 
you  know,  Goupil,  and  you  will  regret  it" 

"Just  as  you  please." 

"I  know  very  well  that  it  will  be  as  I  please! 
And  what  I  want,  above  all,  is  that  Desire  should 
not  be  harmed;  if  any  misfortune  happened  to  him, 
you  see,  I  should  do  something  which  would  send 
me  to  the  scaffold.  Desire ! — But — And  you  don't 
budge  any  more  than  that!" 

A  quarrel  once  started  in  this  way  between  Minoret 
and  his  wife  could  not  end  without  many  private 


URSULE  MIROUET  303 

broils.  And  so  the  senseless  despoiler  found  the 
inward  struggle  between  himself  and  Ursule  ag- 
gravated through  his  blunder,  and  complicated  by 
the  addition  of  a  fresh  and  terrible  adversary.  The 
next  day,  when  he  went  out  in  search  of  Goupil, 
thinking  to  appease  him  by  means  of  money,  he 
read  on  the  walls :  Minoret  is  a  thief!  Everybody 
whom  he  met  pitied  him  whilst  asking  him  who 
was  the  author  of  this  anonymous  publication,  and 
each  one  forgave  the  equivocation  of  his  answers 
in  recollecting  his  incapacity.  Fools  reap  greater 
advantages  from  their  weakness  than  sensible  peo- 
ple obtain  through  their  strength.  We  look  on  at  a 
great  man  struggling  against  fate  without  helping 
him,  and  we  assist  a  bankrupt  grocer.  Do  you  know 
why?  Because  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  superior 
while  protecting  an  imbecile,  and  we  are'annoyed 
at  being  merely  the  equal  of  a  genius.  A  man  of 
intellect  would  have  been  ruined  had  he,  like  Mino- 
ret, stammered  out  absurd  answers  in  a  scared 
manner.  Zelie  and  her  servants  rubbed  out  the 
avenging  inscription  wherever  it  was  to  be  found; 
but  it  remained  upon  Minoret's  conscience.  Al- 
though Goupil  had  given  his  word  the  day  before 
to  the  attorney,  he  very  impudently  refused  to  carry 
out  his  agreement 

"You  see,  my  dear  Lecoeur,  I  have  been  able  to 
buy  the  practice  of  Monsieur  Dionis,  and  I  am  in  a 
position  to  recommend  you  to  others.  Withdraw 
your  agreement,  it  is  only  waste  of  two  pieces  of 
stamped  paper.  Here  are  seventy  centimes." 


304  URSULE  MIROUET 

Lecoeur  was  in  too  great  fear  of  Goupil  to  complain. 
Immediately  after,  all  Nemours  learnt  that  Minoret 
became  security  to  Dionis  to  facilitate  the  purchase 
of  his  practice  for  Goupil.  The  future  notary  wrote 
to  Savinien  refuting  his  confessions  about  Minoret, 
while  telling  the  young  nobleman  that  his  new 
position,  the  laws  adopted  by  the  Supreme  Court  and 
his  respect  for  justice  forbade  him  to  fight.  More- 
over, he  warned  the  gentleman  to  treat  him  well 
thereafter,  for  he  could  kick  extremely  well,  and  at 
the  first  assault  he  vowed  he  would  break  his  leg. 

The  walls  of  Nemours  spoke  no  more.  But  the 
quarrel  between  Minoret  and  his  wife  endured,  and 
Savinien  maintained  a  savage  silence.  The  mar- 
riage of  the  eldest  Mademoiselle  Massin  with  the 
future  notary  ten  days  after  these  events,  was  com- 
mon talk.  Mademoiselle  Massin,  on  her  side,  had 
eighty  thousand  francs  and  her  plainness,  Goupil 
had  his  deformity  and  his  practice;  so  this  union 
seemed  both  probable  and  suitable. 

Two  lurking  strangers  seized  Goupil  in  the  road 
at  midnight,  just  as  he  was  coming  out  of  Massin's 
house,  beat  him  with  a  stick  and  disappeared. 
Goupil  observed  the  deepest  secrecy  about  this  noc- 
turnal scene,  and  contradicted  an  old  woman  who 
fancied  she  had  recognized  him  upon  looking  out  of 
her  window. 

These  important  trifling  events  were  pondered  by 
the  justice  of  the  peace,  who  discovered  that  Goupil 
possessed  some  mysterious  power  over  Minoret, 
and  determined  to  find  out  the  cause. 


Although  public  opinion  in  the  little  town  had 
acknowledged  Ursule's  perfect  innocence,  she  was 
recovering  but  slowly.  In  a  state  of  bodily  prostra- 
tion which  left  both  soul  and  spirit  free,  she  became 
the  seat  of  phenomena,  the  effects  of  which  were 
moreover  terrible,  and  of  such  a  nature  as  to  en- 
gross science,  had  science  been  admitted  into  any 
such  confidence.  Ten  days  after  Madame  de  Por- 
tenduere's  visit,  Ursule  had  a  dream  which  pre- 
sented the  characteristics  of  a  supernatural  vision, 
as  much  in  the  moral  facts  as  in  the  physical  cir- 
cumstances, so  to  speak.  The  late  Minoret,  her  god- 
father, appeared  to  her  and  made  signs  to  her  to  go 
with  him ;  she  dressed  herself,  followed  him  out  into 
the  night  as  far  as  the  house  in  the  Rue  des  Bour- 
geois, where  she  found  the  most  trifling  things  as 
they  had  been  on  the  day  of  her  godfather's  death. 
The  old  man  wore  the  clothes  he  had  on  the  day  be- 
fore his  death,  his  face  was  pale,  and  his  move- 
ments made  no  sound  at  all;  nevertheless,  Ursule 
heard  his  voice  perfectly,  although  it  was  feeble 
and  like  the  repetition  of  a  distant  echo.  The 
doctor  led  his  ward  into  the  study  in  the  Chinese 
pavilion,  where  he  made  her  raise  the  marble  top  of 
the  little  piece  of  Boule  furniture,  just  as  she  had 
raised  it  on  the  day  of  his  death ;  but,  instead  of 
20  (305) 


306  URSULE  MIROUET 

finding  nothing  there,  she  saw  the  letter  that  her 
godfather  had  told  her  to  go  and  fetch ;  she  opened 
it,  and  read  it,  as  well  as  the  will  in  favor  of  Sa- 
vinien. 

"The  letters  of  the  handwriting,"  she  said  to  the 
cure,  "were  shining  as  if  they  had  been  traced 
with  the  sun's  rays,  they  burnt  my  eyes." 

When  she  looked  at  her  uncle  to  thank  him,  she 
saw  a  kindly  smile  upon  his  colorless  lips.  And 
then,  in  its  weak  but  clear  voice,  the  Spectre  showed 
her  Minoret  in  the  passage  listening  to  the  secret, 
going  to  unscrew  the  lock  and  taking  the  packet  of 
papers.  Then,  with  his  right  hand,  he  seized  his 
ward  and  forced  her  to  walk  with  the  step  of  the  dead 
in  order  to  follow  Minoret  to  the  post-house.  Ur- 
sule  went  through  the  town,  entered  the  post-house 
and  Zelie's  old  room,  where  the  spectre  made  her 
look  at  the  despoiler  unsealing  the  letters,  reading 
them  and  burning  them. 

"He  could  only  make  the  third  match  light 
to  burn  the  papers,"  said  Ursule,  "and  he  buried 
the  remains  in  the  ashes.  Afterward,  my  god- 
father brought  me  back  to  our  house  and  I  saw  Mon- 
sieur Minoret-Levrault  creeping  into  the  library, 
whence  he  took,  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Pan- 
dects, the  three  bonds,  each  twelve  thousand  francs 
a  year,  as  well  as  the  value  of  the  arrears  in 
banknotes.  My  godfather  then  said  to  me:  'He  is 
the  author  of  the  tortures  which  have  laid  you  at 
Death's  door;  but  God  wills  that  you  should  be 
happy.  You  will  not  die  yet,  you  will  marry 


URSULE  MIROUET  307 

Savinien !  If  you  love  me,  if  you  love  Savinien,  you 
will  demand  your  fortune  from  my  nephew.  Will 
you  swear  it  to  me  ?'  " 

Shining  like  the  Saviour  during  His  transfigura- 
tion, Minoret's  spirit  had  then,  such  was  Ursule's 
state  of  oppression,  caused  her  such  distress  of  mind 
that  she  promised  to  do  all  that  her  uncle  wished  in 
order  to  stop  the  nightmare.  She  had  wakened 
standing  in  the  middle  of  her  room,  facing  her  god- 
father's portrait  which  she  had  placed  there  since 
her  illness.  She  got  back  into  bed,  went  to  sleep 
again  after  strong  agitation  of  spirit,  and  remem- 
bered this  singular  vision  upon  waking;  but  she  did 
not  dare  to  mention  it  Her  exquisite  judgment 
and  delicacy  revolted  at  the  thought  of  revealing  a 
dream  having  for  aim  and  cause  her  pecuniary  inter- 
ests; she  naturally  attributed  it  to  the  chatter  with 
which  La  Bougival  had  sent  her  to  sleep,  which  had 
been  all  about  her  godfather's  generosity  to  her  and 
the  certainty  that  her  nurse  still  had  in  that  respect 
But  the  dream  returned,  with  aggravations  which 
made  it  exceedingly  dreadful.  The  second  time, 
her  godfather's  icy  hand  was  laid  on  her  shoulder, 
causing  her  the  most  cruel  pain,  an  indefinable  sen- 
sation. "You  must  obey  the  dead !"  he  said  in  sepul- 
chral tones. 

"And  tears,"  she  said,  "fell  from  his  white  and 
vacant  eyes." 

The  third  time,  the  dead  man  took  her  by  her 
long  plaits  and  showed  her  Minoret  talking  with 
Goupil  and  promising  him  money  if  he  would  take 


308  URSULE  MIROUET 

Ursula  to  Sens.  Ursule  then  resolved  to  relate  her 
three  dreams  to  the  Abbe  Chaperon. 

"Monsieur  le  Cure,"  she  said  to  him  one  even- 
ing, "do  you  believe  that  the  dead  can  re-appear?" 

"My  child,  sacred  history,  secular  and  modern 
history,  give  several  instances  of  testimony  on  this 
subject;  but  the  Church  has  never  made  an  Article 
of  Faith  of  it;  and  as  to  science,  in  France,  it 
scorns  it" 

"What  do  you  think?" 

"God's  power,  my  child,  is  infinite." 

"Did  my  godfather  ever  speak  to  you  about  that 
kind  of  thing?" 

"Yes,  often.  He  had  changed  his  opinion  on 
those  matters.  His  conversion  dates  from  the  day, 
so  he  has  told  me  twenty  times,  upon  which  a 
woman  in  Paris  heard  you  praying  for  him  in  Ne- 
mours, and  saw  the  red  dot  you  had  put  before 
Saint-Savinien's  day  in  your  almanac." 

Ursule  gave  a  piercing  cry  that  made  the  priest 
shiver;  she  remembered  the  scene  when,  upon  his 
return  to  Nemours,  her  godfather  had  read  her  mind 
and  had  taken  away  her  almanac. 

"If  that  is  so,"  she  said,  "my  visions  are  quite 
possible.  My  godfather  has  appeared  to  me  as 
Jesus  did  to  His  disciples.  He  is  enveloped  in  golden 
light,  he  speaks !  I  wanted  to  ask  you  to  say  a  mass 
for  the  repose  of  his  soul  and  implore  the  help  of 
God  so  as  to  stop  these  apparitions,  which  tire  me 
out" 

She  narrated  her  three  dreams  and  their  most 


URSULE  MIROUET  309 

trifling  details,  insisting  upon  the  absolute  truth  of 
the  facts,  the  facility  of  her  movements,  and  the 
somnambulism  of  an  inner  self,  which,  she  said, 
moved  about  under  the  spirit's  guidance  with  the 
greatest  ease. 

The  priest,  knowing  Ursule's  truthfulness,  was 
not  a  little  surprised  at  the  accurate  description  of 
the  room  formerly  occupied  by  Zelie  Minoret  in  her 
post-house,  in  which  Ursule  had  never  been,  and  of 
which,  in  fact,  she  had  never  even  heard. 

"By  what  means  can  these  strange  apparitions 
take  place  ?"  said  Ursule.  "What  did  my  godfather 
think  of  it?" 

"Your  godfather,  my  child,  went  by  hypothesis. 
He  had  admitted  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  world, 
a  world  of  ideas.  If  ideas  are  a  production  peculiar 
to  man,  if  they  subsist  upon  a  life  which  is  their 
own,  they  might  have  shapes  that  are  imperceptible 
to  our  outward  senses,  but  perceptible  to  our  inward 
senses  when  they  are  in  certain  conditions.  And 
so  your  godfather's  ideas  may  envelop  you,  and 
perhaps  you  have  invested  them  with  his  sem- 
blance. Then,  if  Minoret  has  committed  these  acts, 
they  resolve  themselves  into  ideas ;  for  all  action  is 
the  result  of  several  ideas.  Now,  if  ideas  move  in 
the  spiritual  world  your  spirit  must  have  perceived 
them  by  penetrating  into  it  These  phenomena  are 
not  more  extraordinary  than  those  of  memory,  and 
those  of  memory  are  as  surprising  and  unaccount- 
able as  those  of  the  perfume  of  plants,  which  may  be 
the  ideas  of  the  plant" 


310  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Dear  me!  how  you  enlarge  the  world!  But  to 
hear  a  corpse  speak,  to  see  it  walking  and  acting, 
is  that  possible?" 

"In  Sweden,"  replied  the  Abbe  Chaperon, 
"Swedenborg  has  clearly  proved  that  he  communi- 
cated with  the  dead.  However,  come  into  the 
library  and  you  will  read  in  the  life  of  the  famous 
Due  de  Montmorency,  who  was  beheaded  at  Tou- 
louse, and  certainly  was  not  the  man  to  invent  idle 
tales,  an  adventure  that  is  almost  similar  to  yours 
and  which  had  happened  a  hundred  years  before, 
at  Cardan." 

Ursule  and  the  cure  went  up  to  the  first  story, 
and  the  old  man  picked  her  out  a  small  edition  in 
i2mo,  printed  in  Paris  in  1666,  of  L'Histoire  de  Henri 
de  Montmorency,  written  by  a  contemporary  ecclesi- 
astic who  had  known  the  prince. 

"Read  it,"  said  the  cure,  giving  her  the  volume 
at  pages  175  and  176.  "Your  godfather  often  read 
this  passage,  and  look,  here  still  is  some  of  his 
snuff." 

"And  he  himself  is  no  more!" said  Ursule,  taking 
the  book  and  reading  this  passage : 


"  The  siege  of  Privas  was  remarkable  on  account  of  the 
loss  of  several  persons  in  command ;  two  major-generals  died 
there,  to  wit,  the  Marquis  d'Uxelles,  from  a  wound  he  received 
in  the  outworks,  and  the  Marquis  de  Porte,  from  a  musket- 
shot  in  the  head.  The  day  he  was  killed  he  was  to  have  been 
made  Marshal  of  France.  About  the  time  the  marquis  died, 
the  Due  de  Montmorency,  who  was  asleep  in  his  tent,  was 
awakened  by  a  voice  resembling  that  of  the  marquis,  which 


URSULE  MIROUET  311 

was  bidding  him  farewell.  The  affection  he  felt  for  so  near  a 
relation  led  him  to  attribute  the  illusion  of  this  dream  to  the 
power  of  his  imagination  ;  the  labors  of  the  night  which  he 
had  spent,  as  was  his  wont,  in  the  trenches,  caused  him  to 
fall  asleep  again  without  any  apprehension.  But  the  same 
voice  disturbed  him  once  more,  and  the  phantom,  that  he  had 
seen  only  in  his  sleep,  compelled  him  to  wake  again  and  to 
distinctly  hear  the  same  words  it  had  uttered  before  disappear- 
ing. The  duke  then  recollected  that  one  day  when  they  were 
listening  to  the  philosopher  Pitrat  discoursing  upon  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  soul  from  the  body,  they  had  promised  to  say 
good-bye  to  each  other  if  the  first  who  happened  to  die  was 
permitted  to  do  so.  Upon  which,  unable  to  overcome  the 
dread  of  the  truth  of  this  warning,  he  promptly  sent  one  of 
his  servants  to  the  marquis's  quarters,  which  were  some  dis- 
tance from  his  own.  But,  before  his  man  could  return,  the 
king  sent  to  tell  him,  through  persons  who  were  best  calcu- 
lated to  comfort  him,  of  the  misfortune  he  had  feared. 

"  I  leave  it  to  the  doctors  to  quarrel  over  the  reason  of  this 
event,  which  1  have  heard  related  by  the  Ducde  Montmorency 
several  times,  and  which  I  thought  so  marvelous  and  probable 
as  to  be  worth  quoting." 

"But  then,"  said  Ursule,  "what  ought  I  to  do?" 
"My  child,"  replied  the  cure,  "it  is  a  question  of 
such  serious  things  and  such  that  would  be  so  ad- 
vantageous to  yourself  that  you  should  maintain 
absolute  silence.  Now  that  you  have  confided  the 
secrets  of  this  apparition  to  me,  perhaps  it  will  not 
occur  again.  Moreover,  you  are  now  strong  enough 
to  go  to  church ;  so,  to-morrow,  you  will  go  there  to 
return  thanks  to  God  and  pray  Him  to  give  your 
godfather  peace.  You  may  also  rest  assured  that 
you  have  placed  your  secret  in  discreet  keeping." 
"If  you  only  knew  my  terrors  when  I  go  to  sleep 


312  URSULE  MIROUET 

again !  the  looks  my  godfather  gives  me !  The  last 
time,  he  hung  on  to  my  dress  to  see  me  longer.  I 
woke  up  with  tears  streaming  down  my  face." 

"Do  not  worry,  he  will  not  return,"  said  the 
cure. 

Without  losing  an  instant,  the  Abbe  Chaperon 
went  to  Minoret's  and  begged  him  to  give  him  a 
moment's  interview  in  the  Chinese  pavilion,  only 
stipulating  that  they  should  be  alone. 

"Nobody  can  hear  us?"  said  the  Abbe  Chaperon. 

"No  one,"  replied  Minoret 

"Monsieur,  my  character  is  well  known  to  you," 
said  the  old  man,  fixing  a  gentle  but  watchful  glance 
upon  Minoret's  face.  "I  have  to  speak  about  the 
gravest  and  most  extraordinary  things,  which  con- 
cern you  alone  and  about  which  you  may  be  sure  I 
shall  preserve  the  closest  secrecy,  but  it  is  impossi- 
ble that  I  should  not  inform  you  of  them.  When 
your  uncle  was  alive,  there  used  to  be  there,"  said 
the  priest,  pointing  to  the  spot  where  it  had  stood, 
"a  small  Boule  sideboard  with  a  marble  top," — 
Minoret  grew  livid, — "and,  underneath  this  marble, 
your  uncle  had  put  a  letter  for  his  ward — " 

And  the  cure  related,  without  omitting  the  slight- 
est incident,  Minoret's  own  conduct  to  Minoret  him- 
self. The  former  postmaster,  upon  hearing  the 
detail  of  the  two  matches  that  went  out  before 
kindling,  felt  his  hair  rising  on  his  scalp. 

"Who  could  have  invented  such  nonsense?"  he 
said  to  the  cure  in  a  choking  voice  when  the  recital 
was  over. 


URSULE  MIROUET  313 

"The  dead  man  himself!" 

This  reply  gave  Minoret  something  of  a  shock, 
as  he  too  used  to  see  the  doctor  in  his  dreams. 

"God  is  very  kind,  Monsieur  le  Cure,  to  perform 
miracles  on  my  account,"  rejoined  Minoret,  whose 
peril  inspired  him  with  the  only  joke  he  made  in  all 
his  life. 

"All  that  God  does  is  natural,"  answered  the 
priest 

"Your  phantasmagoria  does  not  frighten  me," 
said  the  giant,  somewhat  recovering  his  presence  of 
mind. 

"I  have  not  come  to  frighten  you,  dear  monsieur, 
for  I  would  not  mention  this  to  a  living  soul,"  said 
the  cure,  "you  alone  know  the  truth.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter between  you  and  God." 

"Look  here,  Monsieur  le  Cure,  do  you  believe 
me  capable  of  such  a  horrible  abuse  of  confi- 
dence?" 

"I  only  believe  in  those  crimes  that  are  confessed 
to  me  and  repented  of,"  said  the  priest,  in  apos- 
tolic tones. 

"A  crime?"  cried  Minoret. 

"A  crime  that  is  awful  in  its  consequences." 

"How?" 

"By  escaping  human  justice.  Crimes  that  are 
not  atoned  for  here  below  will  be  in  the  next  life. 
God  Himself  avenges  innocence." 

"Do  you  believe  that  God  troubles  Himself  about 
these  trifles?" 

"Did  He  not  see  every  detail  in  the  universe  at 


314  URSULE  MIROUET 

a  glance,  as  you  take  in  a  whole  landscape  with 
your  eye,  He  would  not  be  God." 

"Monsieur  le  Cure,  do  you  give  me  your  word 
that  you  have  only  been  given  these  details  by  my 
uncle?" 

"Your  uncle  has  appeared  three  times  to  Ursule 
to  repeat  them  to  her.  Worn  out  by  her  dreams, 
she  has  confided  these  revelations  to  me  in  secret, 
and  considers  them  so  devoid  of  reason  that  she 
will  never  mention  them.  And  so  you  may  be  easy 
on  that  point" 

"But  I  am  easy  in  every  way,  Monsieur  Cha- 
peron." 

"1  hope  so,"  said  the  old  priest.  "Even  though 
I  might  call  these  dream  warnings  absurd,  I  should 
still  deem  it  necessary  to  inform  you  of  them,  on 
account  of  the  singularity  of  the  details.  You  are 
an  honest  man,  and  have  gained  your  handsome  for- 
tune too  lawfully  to  want  to  add  to  it  by  theft 
Besides,  you  are  an  almost  primitive  man,  and 
would  be  too  much  tortured  by  remorse.  We  have 
within  us  a  feeling  of  right,  in  the  most  civilized  as 
well  as  in  the  most  uncivilized  man,  which  will  not 
permit  us  to  peacefully  enjoy  any  good  that  is 
wrongfully  acquired  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
society  in  which  we  live,  for  well  constituted  so- 
cieties are  modeled  upon  the  rules  imposed  upon 
mankind  by  God  Himself.  In  this,  communities  are 
of  divine  origin.  Man  does  not  discover  ideas,  he 
does  not  invent  forms,  he  imitates  the  eternal  rela- 
tions that  surround  him  on  all  sides.  And  so,  see 


URSULE  MIROUET  315 

what  happens:  no  criminal  going  to  the  scaffold 
with  the  power  of  taking  the  secret  of  his  crimes 
with  him,  allows  his  head  to  be  cut  off  before  he 
has  made  the  confession  to  which  he  is  impelled  by 
some  mysterious  power.  Therefore,  my  dear  Mon- 
sieur Minoret,  if  you  are  at  ease,  I  shall  go  away 
feeling  happy." 

Minoret  was  so  stupefied  that  he  did  not  show  the 
cure  out  When  he  thought  he  was  quite  alone,  he 
flew  into  an  apoplectic  rage ;  he  gave  vent  to  the 
wildest  blasphemies,  and  called  Ursule  the  most 
odious  names. 

"Well,  what  has  she  done  to  you?"  said  his  wife, 
who  had  tiptoed  back  after  having  shown  out  the 
cure. 

For  the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life,  Minoret, 
intoxicated  with  rage  and  exasperated  by  his  wife's 
ceaseless  questions,  gave  her  such  a  beating  that, 
when  she  fell  covered  with  bruises,  he  was  obliged 
to  pick  her  up  in  his  arms  and,  feeling  thoroughly 
ashamed,  to  put  her  to  bed  himself.  He  had  a  slight 
illness :  the  doctor  had  to  bleed  him  twice.  When 
he  was  up,  everyone  in  the  course  of  time  noticed  a 
change  in  him.  Minoret  used  to  walk  alone,  and 
would  often  go  through  the  streets  like  a  man  dis- 
quieted. He  seemed  absent-minded  when  listening, 
he  who  had  never  had  two  ideas  in  his  head.  At 
last,  one  evening,  in  the  Grande-Rue,  he  met  the 
justice  of  the  peace,  who  was  doubtless  going  to  fetch 
Ursule  in  order  to  escort  her  to  Madame  de  Porten- 
duere's,  where  the  whist-party  had  recommenced. 


316  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Monsieur  Bongrand,  I  have  something  rather 
important  to  say  to  my  cousin,"  he  said,  taking  the 
justice  by  the  arm,  "and  I  am  glad  to  see  you,  you 
may  be  able  to  advise  her." 

They  found  Ursule  practising;  she  rose  with  a 
cold  and  stately  manner  upon  seeing  Minoret 

"My  child,  Monsieur  Minoret  wants  to  talk  busi- 
ness with  you,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace. 
"By-the-bye,  do  not  forget  to  give  me  your  bonds; 
I  am  going  to  Paris,  and  will  collect  yours  and  La 
BougivaPs  dividends." 

"Cousin,"  said  Minoret,  "our  uncle  had  accus- 
tomed you  to  greater  comfort  than  you  now  have." 

"One  can  be  very  happy  with  little  money,"  she 
said. 

"I  was  thinking  that  money  might  increase  your 
happiness,"  rejoined  Minoret,  "and  I  was  coming 
to  offer  some  to  you,  out  of  respect  for  my  uncle's 
memory." 

"There  was  a  simple  way  of  showing  your  re- 
spect for  him,"  said  Ursule  severely.  "You  might 
have  left  his  house  as  it  was  and  sold  it  to  me,  for 
you  only  raised  it  to  so  high  a  price  in  the  hopes  of 
finding  some  treasure — " 

"Well,"  said  Minoret,  evidently  depressed,  "if 
you  had  twelve  thousand  francs  a  year,  you 
would  be  in  a  position  to  marry  more  advan- 
tageously." 

"I  have  not  got  it" 

"But  if  I  were  to  give  it  to  you,  on  condition 
that  you  bought  an  estate  in  Brittany,  the  native 


URSULE  MIROUET  317 

country  of  Madame  de  Portenduere,  who  would  then 
consent  to  your  marriage  with  her  son —  ?" 

"Monsieur  Minoret,"  said  Ursule,  "I  have  no 
right  at  all  to  so  large  a  sum  and  I  could  not  accept 
it  from  you.  We  are  very  slightly  related  and  still 
less  friends.  I  have  already  suffered  too  much  from 
the  miseries  of  calumny  to  wish  to  give  rise  to 
scandal.  What  have  I  done  to  deserve  this  money  ? 
Upon  what  grounds  do  you  make  me  such  a  pres- 
ent? These  questions,  which  I  have  the  right  to 
ask  you,  will  be  answered  by  everyone  according 
to  his  own  interpretation,  it  would  be  considered 
as  reparation  for  some  injury,  and  I  would  not  ac- 
cept any.  Your  uncle  did  not  bring  me  up  with 
ignoble  feelings.  One  should  not  accept  anything 
but  from  one's  friends :  I  could  not  feel  affection 
for  you,  and  I  should  necessarily  be  ungrateful. 
I  do  not  wish  to  run  the  risk  of  wanting  in  grati- 
tude." 

"You  refuse?"  cried  the  giant,  who  could  not 
conceive  the  idea  of  anyone  being  able  to  refuse  a 
fortune. 

"I  refuse,"  repeated  Ursule. 

"But  what  is  your  reason  for  offering  mademoi- 
selle such  a  fortune?"  asked  the  old  lawyer,  look- 
ing fixedly  at  Minoret,  "you  have  an  idea;  have 
you  an  idea?" 

"Well,  the  idea  of  sending  her  away  from  Ne- 
mours so  that  my  son  should  leave  me  in  peace; 
he  is  in  love  with  her  and  wants  to  marry  her." 

"Well  then,  we  will  see,"  replied  the  justice  of 


318  URSULE  MIROUET 

the  peace,  securing  his  spectacles.  "Give  us  time  to 
think  it  over." 

He  accompanied  Minoret  as  far  as  his  house,  all 
the  time  commending  his  anxiety  for  Desire's  fu- 
ture, rather  blaming  Ursule's  precipitation  and  prom- 
ising to  make  her  listen  to  reason.  As  soon  as 
Minoret  had  got  home,  Bongrand  went  to  the  post- 
master, borrowed  his  horse  and  gig,  hurried  to  Fon- 
tainebleau,  asked  for  the  deputy  and  was  told  that 
he  must  be  spending  the  evening  at  the  sub-pre- 
fect's. The  justice  of  the  peace,  delighted,  called 
there.  Desire  was  playing  a  game  of  whist  with 
the  prosecutor's  wife,  the  sub-prefect's  wife  and  the 
colonel  of  the  regiment  then  in  garrison. 

"I  have  come  to  tell  you  good  news,"  said  Mon- 
sieur Bongrand  to  Desire,  "you  love  your  cousin 
Ursule  Mirouet,  and  your  father  is  no  longer  op- 
posed to  your  marriage." 

"I  love  Ursule  Mirouet?"  cried  Desire,  laughing, 
"why  do  you  assume  it  to  be  Ursule  Mirouet?  I 
recollect  having  sometimes  seen  this  little  girl,  who 
is  certainly  very  beautiful,  at  the  house  of  the  late 
Minoret,  my  great-uncle;  but  she  is  extremely  re- 
ligious; and  if,  like  everyone  else,  I  have  done 
justice  to  her  charms,  I  have  never  had  my  head 
turned  by  this  rather  insipid  blonde,"  said  he,  smil- 
ing at  the  sub-prefect's  wife, — she  was  a  piquant 
brunette,  according  to  the  old  expression  of  the  last 
century. — "Where  do  you  come  from,  my  dear 
Monsieur  Bongrand?  Everyone  knows  that  my 
father  is  lord  paramount  of  forty-eight  thousand 


URSULE  MIROUET  319 

francs  a  year  in  property  lying  round  his  Chateau 
du  Rouvre,  and  all  the  world  knows  that  I  have 
forty-eight  thousand  permanent  and  financial  rea- 
sons for  not  loving  the  ward  of  the  court  If  I  were 
to  marry  an  insignificant  girl,  these  ladies  would 
take  me  for  an  idiot" 

"Then  you  have  never  tormented  your  father  on 
the  subject  of  Ursule?" 

"Never." 

"You  hear  this,  Monsieur  le  Procureur  du  Roi?" 
said  the  justice  of  the  peace  to  this  magistrate,  who 
had  been  listening  to  them,  and  whom  he  led  into 
an  embrasure,  where  they  stood  talking  about  a 
quarter  of  an  hour.  An  hour  afterward,  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  having  returned  to  Nemours  and  to 
Ursule's  house,  sent  La  Bougival  to  fetch  Minoret, 
who  came  immediately. 

"Mademoiselle — "  said  Bongrand  to  Minoret  as 
he  came  in. 

"Accepts?'  said  Minoret  interrupting  him. 

"No,  not  yet,"  replied  the  justice,  feeling  his 
spectacles,  "she  has  had  scruples  as  to  your  son's 
condition,  for  she  has  been  very  badly  treated  in 
regard  to  a  similar  passion,  and  knows  the  cost  of 
tranquillity.  Can  you  swear  to  her  that  your  son 
is  madly  in  love  with  her,  and  that  you  have  no 
other  motive  than  that  of  protecting  our  dear  Ursule 
from  any  fresh  goupilleries  ?" 

"Oh!  I  swear,"  said  Minoret 

"Stop!  Papa  Minoret!"  said  the  justice  of 
the  peace,  removing  one  of  his  hands  from  his 


320  URSULE  MIROUET 

trousers-pocket  to  tap  Minoret  on  the  shoulder,  mak- 
ing him  start  "Do  not  take  a  false  oath  so  lightly. " 

"A  false  oath?" 

"It  is  either  you  or  your  son,  who  has  just  sworn 
at  Fontainebleau,  at  the  sub-prefect's,  before  four 
persons  and  the  public  prosecutor,  that  he  has  never 
thought  of  his  cousin  Ursule  Mirouet.  Then  you 
have  other  reasons  for  offering  her  such  an  enor- 
mous capital?  I  saw  that  you  were  making  rash 
assertions,  and  went  myself  to  Fontainebleau." 

Minoret  stood  dumfounded  at  his  own  stupidity. 

"But  there  is  no  harm,  Monsieur  Bongrand,  in 
offering  to  help  a  relation  in  a  marriage  which 
seems  likely  to  make  her  happy,  and  in  finding  pre- 
texts for  overcoming  her  modesty." 

Minoret,  to  whom  danger  had  suggested  an  almost 
plausible  excuse,  wiped  his  forehead,  which  was 
covered  with  big  beads  of  perspiration. 

"You  know  my  motives  for  refusing,"  answered 
Ursule,  "and  I  beg  you  not  to  come  here  again. 
Monsieur  de  Portenduere,  without  confiding  his 
reasons  to  me,  entertains  feelings  of  scorn  and 
even  hatred  towards  you,  which  forbid  me  to  re- 
ceive you.  My  happiness  is  my  entire  fortune,  I 
do  not  blush  to  confess  it;  and  so  I  will  not  endan- 
ger it,  as  Monsieur  de  Portenduere  is  only  waiting 
until  I  come  of  age,  to  marry  me." 

"The  proverb,  'Money  does  everything'  is  in- 
deed untrue,"  said  great  fat  Minoret,  looking  at  the 
justice  of  the  peace,  whose  observing  eyes  made 
him  very  uncomfortable. 


URSULE  MIROUET  321 

He  got  up  and  left,  but  outside  he  found  the  at- 
mosphere as  oppressive  as  in  the  little  parlor. 

"And  yet  there  must  be  an  end  to  all  this,"  he 
said  to  himself  as  he  reached  home. 

"Your  bond,  my  child?"  said  the  justice  of  the 
peace,  somewhat  astonished  at  Ursule's  serenity 
after  so  strange  an  incident 

When  she  brought  her  own  and  La  Bougival's 
bonds,  Ursule  found  the  justice  striding  up  and 
down. 

"Have  you  any  idea  of  the  object  of  that  great 
booby's  proceedings?"  he  said. 

"None  that  I  can  tell,"  she  replied. 

Monsieur  Bongrand  looked  at  her  in  surprise. 

"Then  we  have  the  same  idea,"  he  answered. 
"Here,  keep  the  numbers  of  these  two  bonds  in 
case  I  should  lose  them;  one  should  always  take 
that  precaution." 

Bongrand  then  himself  wrote  down  the  number 
of  Ursule's  and  of  her  nurse's  bond  on  a  card. 

"Good-bye,  my  child;  I  shall  be  away  two  days, 
but  I  shall  be  here  on  the  third  for  my  sitting." 


21 


That  very  night,  Ursule  had  an  apparition  which 
took  place  in  a  strange  way. 

It  seemed  to  her  that  her  bed  was  in  the 
cemetery  at  Nemours,  and  that  her  uncle's  grave 
was  at  the  foot  of  her  bed.  The  white  stone  on 
which  she  read  the  inscription  dazzled  her  most 
intensely  in  opening  like  the  oblong  cover  of  an 
album.  She  uttered  piercing  cries,  but  her  uncle's 
spirit  slowly  stood  up.  First  she  saw  the  yellow 
head  and  the  shining  white  hair  surrounded  by  a 
sort  of  halo.  The  eyes  were  like  two  rays  beneath 
the  bare  forehead,  and  he  was  rising,  as  if  impelled 
by  some  superior  power.  Ursule  trembled  dread- 
fully in  her  bodily  exterior,  her  flesh  was  like  a 
burning  garment  and  there  seemed,  she  said  later 
on,  to  be  another  self  moving  within  her. 

"Godfather,  have  mercy!"  she  said. 

"Mercy?  there  is  no  longer  time,"  he  said  in  the 
voice  of  the  dead,  according  to  the  inexplicable  ex- 
pression of  the  poor  girl  when  relating  this  fresh 
dream  to  the  Abbe  Chaperon.  "He  has  been 
warned,  he  has  not  paid  attention  to  the  warnings. 
His  son's  days  are  numbered.  If  he  has  not  con- 
fessed all,  restored  all  within  a  short  time,  he  will 
mourn  his  son,  who  will  die  a  horrible  and  violent 
death.  Let  him  know  it!" 
(323) 


324  URSULE  MIROUET 

The  spirit  pointed  to  a  row  of  figures  sparkling 
on  the  wall  as  if  they  had  been  written  in  fire,  and 
said: 

"There  is  his  sentence!" 

When  her  uncle  had  again  lain  down  in  his  tomb, 
Ursule  heard  the  sound  of  the  falling  stone,  then  in 
the  distance  a  strange  noise  of  horses  and  a  man's 
cries. 

The  next  day,  Ursule  found  herself  exhausted. 
She  could  not  get  up,  so  much  was  she  oppressed 
by  this  dream.  She  begged  her  nurse  to  go  at  once 
to  the  Abbe  Chaperon's  and  bring  him  back  with 
her.  The  old  man  came  after  having  said  mass; 
but  he  was  not  at  all  astonished  at  Ursule's  story ; 
he  believed  the  robbery  to  be  true  and  no  longer 
sought  any  explanation  of  the  anomalous  life  of  his 
dear  little  dreamer.  He  left  Ursule  at  once,  and  hur- 
ried to  Minoret's. 

"Mon  Dieu!  Monsieur  le  Cure,"  said  Zelie  to 
the  priest,  "my  husband's  temper  is  soured,  I  don't 
know  what  is  the  matter  with  him.  Hitherto  he 
has  been  like  a  child;  but,  for  the  last  two  months, 
he  is  no  longer  the  same.  To  have  flown  into  such 
a  passion  as  to  strike  me,  I,  who  am  so  gentle !  the 
man  must  be  entirely  changed.  You  will  find  him 
among  the  rocks,  he  spends  all  his  days  there! 
What  does  he  do  ?" 

In  spite  of  the  heat — it  was  then  September  1836 
— the  priest  crossed  the  canal  and  struck  into  a  path- 
way, seeing  Minoret  at  the  foot  of  one  of  the  rocks. 

"You  are  very  much  worried,  Monsieur  Minoret," 


URSULE  MIROUET  325 

said  the  priest,  appearing  before  the  culprit,  "you 
belong  to  me,  for  you  are  suffering.  Unhappily,  I 
have  come  no  doubt  to  augment  your  anxieties. 
Last  night  Ursule  had  a  terrible  dream.  Your  uncle 
lifted  his  tombstone  to  prophesy  misfortune  to  your 
family.  Indeed  I  do  not  come  to  frighten  you,  but 
you  ought  to  know  what  he  said — " 

"Really,  Monsieur  le  Cure,  I  can  get  no  peace 
anywhere,  not  even  on  these  rocks — I  want  to  know 
nothing  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  other  world." 

"I  will  go  away,  monsieur;  I  did  not  come  all 
this  way  in  the  heat  for  my  own  pleasure,"  said 
the  priest,  wiping  his  forehead. 

"Well,  what  did  the  old  man  say?"  asked  Mino- 
ret 

"You  are  threatened  with  the  loss  of  your  son. 
If  he  has  related  things  that  you  alone  know  of,  it 
makes  one  shudder  to  think  of  the  things  that  we 
do  not  know.  Restore  it,  dear  monsieur,  restore  it! 
Do  not  condemn  yourself  for  a  little  gold." 

"But  what  am  I  to  restore?" 

"The  fortune  that  the  doctor  intended  for  Ursule. 
I  now  know  that  you  took  those  three  bonds. 
You  began  by  persecuting  the  poor  girl,  and  you 
end  by  offering  her  a  dowry;  you  fall  into  false- 
hood, you  become  entangled  in  its  intricacies  and 
make  mistakes  at  every  turn.  You  are  clumsy, 
and  have  been  badly  served  by  your  accomplice 
Goupil,  who  laughs  at  you.  You  had  better  make 
haste,  for  you  are  being  watched  by  shrewd,  intel- 
ligent people,  Ursule's  friends.  Make  restitution! 


326  URSULE  MIROUET 

and,  if  you  do  not  save  your  son,  who  is  perhaps 
not  menaced,  you  will  save  your  soul  and  your 
honor.  In  a  community  like  this,  in  a  little  town 
where  every  one's  eyes  are  upon  you,  and  where 
all  is  found  out  although  all  is  not  known,  how  can 
you  hide  a  fortune  wrongfully  acquired  ?  Come, 
my  dear  son,  an  innocent  man  would  not  have  let 
me  talk  so  long." 

"Go  to  the  devil!"  cried  Minoret,  "I  don't  know 
why  you  all  go  at  me.  I  would  rather  have  these 
stones,  they  leave  me  in  peace." 

"Good-bye.  You  have  been  warned  by  me, 
monsieur,  without  either  the  poor  child  or  myself 
having  said  a  single  word  to  anybody  whatever. 
But  take  care !  there  is  one  man  who  has  his  eye 
upon  you.  God  have  pity  upon  you !" 

The  cure  went  away ;  but,  after  walking  a  few 
steps,  he  turned  round  to  look  once  more  at  Minoret 

Minoret  was  holding  his  head  in  his  hands,  for 
his  head  was  uncomfortable.  Minoret  was  a  little 
crazy.  In  the  first  place,  he  had  kept  the  three 
bonds,  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  them, 
he  dared  not  go  and  receive  them  himself,  he 
was  afraid  lest  somebody  should  remark  it;  he  did 
not  want  to  sell  them,  and  was  trying  to  find  some 
way  of  transferring  them.  He,  even  he!  would 
create  romances  about  business  in  which  the  issue 
was  always  the  transfer  of  the  accursed  bonds. 
In  this  fearful  predicament,  he  nevertheless  thought 
of  confessing  all  to  his  wife,  so  as  to  have  some 
advice.  Zelie,  who  had  steered  her  own  business 


URSULE  MIROUET  327 

so  well,  would  know  how  to  help  him  out  of  this 
tiresome  dilemma.  Three  per  cent  stock  was  then 
at  eighty  francs,  so  it  was  a  question,  with  arrears, 
of  restoring  nearly  a  million!  To  return  a  million, 
without  there  being  any  proof  as  to  its  being  stolen! 
this  was  no  light  matter.  And  so  Minoret  spent  all 
September  and  part  of  October  a  prey  to  his  re- 
morse and  irresolution.  To  the  great  astonishment 
of  the  whole  town,  he  grew  thin. 

A  dreadful  event  hurried  on  the  disclosure  that 
Minoret  was  longing  to  make  to  Zelie;  the  sword 
of  Damocles  stirred  over  their  heads.  Toward  the 
middle  of  October,  Monsieur  and  Madame  Minoret 
received  the  following  letter  from  their  son: 

"MY  DEAR  MOTHER, 

"  If  I  have  not  been  to  see  you  since  the  holidays,  It  is,  first, 
because  I  was  on  duty  in  the  absence  of  Monsieur  le  Procureur 
du  Roi,  and  then  because  I  knew  Monsieur  de  Portenduere  was 
waiting  for  me  to  visit  Nemours  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  me. 
Tired,  perhaps,  of  putting  off  the  revenge  that  he  wished  to 
wreak  upon  our  family,  the  viscount  came  to  Fontainebleau, 
where  he  had  made  an  appointment  with  one  of  his  friends 
from  Paris,  after  having  secured  the  co-operation  of  the  Vicomte 
de  Soulanges,  who  is  major  of  the  hussars  now  in  garrison 
here.  He  called  upon  me  very  politely,  accompanied  by  these 
two  gentlemen,  and  told  me  that  my  father  was  undoubtedly 
the  author  of  the  infamous  persecutions  practised  upon  Ursule 
Mirouet,  his  future  wife ;  he  proved  it  to  me  by  explaining  to 
me  Goupil's  confession  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  and  also 
the  conduct  of  my  father,  who  first  had  refused  to  fulfil  the 
promises  made  to  Goupil  to  reward  him  for  his  treacherous 
inventions,  and  who,  after  having  provided  him  with  funds 
for  the  negotiation  of  the  attorney's  office  at  Nemours,  had, 


328  URSULE  MIROUET 

through  fear,  offered  his  security  to  Monsieur  Dionis  for  the 
price  of  his  practice,  and  finally  established  Goupil.  The  vis- 
count, being  unable  to  fight  a  man  of  sixty-seven,  and  being 
absolutely  determined  to  avenge  the  injuries  done  to  Ursule, 
has  formally  demanded  reparation  from  me.  His  resolution, 
taken  and  weighed  in  silence,  was  immovable.  Had  I  declined 
a  duel,  he  had  resolved  to  meet  me  in  a  drawing-room,  in  the 
presence  of  persons  whose  esteem  1  most  value,  and  there  to 
insult  me  so  seriously,  that  I  should  then  have  to  fight  or  my 
career  would  come  to  an  end.  In  France,  a  coward  is  univer- 
sally scouted.  Moreover,  men  of  honor  would  understand 
his  motives  for  exacting  reparation.  He  expressed  his  sorrow 
at  being  driven  to  such  extremities.  According  to  his  seconds, 
the  most  sensible  thing  for  me  to  do  would  be  to  settle  an  en- 
counter as  honorable  men  are  in  the  habit  of  doing,  so  that 
Ursule  Mirouet  should  not  be  the  cause  of  the  quarrel.  In 
fact,  to  avoid  any  scandal  in  France,  we  could  travel  over  the 
nearest  frontier  with  our  seconds.  In  this  way  things  will 
be  settled  for  the  best.  He  said  his  name  was  worth  ten 
times  my  fortune,  and  with  his  future  happiness  he  was  risk- 
ing more  than  I  in  this  fight,  which  will  be  to  the  death.  He 
has  advised  me  to  choose  my  seconds,  and  to  settle  these 
points.  The  seconds  that  I  chose  met  his  yesterday,  and 
unanimously  agreed  that  I  owe  reparation.  So  in  eight  days  I 
shall  start  for  Geneva  with  two  of  my  friends.  Monsieur  de 
Portenduere,  Monsieur  de  Soulanges  and  Monsieur  de  Trailles 
will  also  go.  We  shall  fight  with  pistols ;  all  the  conditions  of 
the  duel  are  decided ;  we  shall  each  fire  three  times,  and  after- 
ward, no  matter  what  happens,  all  will  be  over.  To  avoid 
spreading  so  shameful  an  affair — for  I  cannot  possibly  justify 
my  father's  conduct — I  am  writing  to  you  at  the  last  minute. 
I  will  not  go  to  see  you,  on  account  of  the  fury  to  which  you 
might  give  way  and  which  would  not  be  at  all  agreeable.  In 
order  to  get  on  in  society  I  must  follow  its  rules ;  and,  where 
there  may  be  ten  reasons  for  a  viscount's  son  to  fight,  there 
are  a  hundred  for  a  postmaster's  son.  I  shall  pass  through 
Nemours  by  night,  and  will  say  good-bye  to  you." 


URSULE  MIROUET  329 

When  this  letter  had  been  read,  there  was  a 
scene  between  Zelie  and  Minoret,  which  ended  by 
the  confession  of  the  theft,  and  all  the  circum- 
stances relating  to  it  and  the  strange  scenes  to 
which  it  had  everywhere  given  rise,  even  in  the 
world  of  dreams.  The  million  fascinated  Zelie 
quite  as  much  as  it  had  fascinated  Minoret 

"You  stay  quietly  here,"  said  Zelie  to  her  hus- 
band, without  reproaching  him  at  all  for  his  follies, 
"I  will  look  after  all  this.  We  will  keep  the  money, 
and  Desire  shall  not  fight" 

Madame  Minoret  put  on  her  hat  and  shawl,  ran 
over  to  Ursule's  with  her  son's  letter,  and  found 
her  alone,  for  it  was  about  midday. 

In  spite  of  her  assurance,  Zelie  Minoret  was  chilled 
by  the  cold  glance  that  the  orphan  gave  her ;  but 
she  curbed  herself,  as  it  were,  in  her  cowardice  and 
assumed  an  easy  tone. 

"Here,  Mademoiselle  Mirouet,  will  you  oblige  me 
by  reading  this  letter  and  telling  me  what  you  think 
of  it?"  she  cried,  holding  out  the  deputy's  letter  to 
Ursule. 

Ursule  experienced  a  thousand  conflicting  emo- 
tions upon  reading  this  letter,  which  told  her  how 
much  she  was  loved,  and  what  care  Savinien  took 
of  the  honor  of  her  whom  he  was  taking  for  his  wife ; 
but  she  was  both  too  religious  and  too  charitable  to 
wish  to  be  the  cause  of  her  bitterest  enemy's  death 
or  suffering. 

"I  promise,  madame,  to  prevent  this  duel,  and  you 
may  be  easy ;  but  I  beg  you  will  leave  me  this  letter. " 


330  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Come,  my  little  angel,  could  we  not  do  better 
than  that?  Listen  to  me  carefully.  We  have 
altogether  forty-eight  thousand  francs  a  year  from 
the  estate  round  about  Le  Rouvre,  which  is  a 
truly  royal  chateau;  besides  that,  we  can  give 
Desire  twenty-four  thousand  francs  a  year  in  bonds 
of  the  national  debt,  in  all,  seventy-two  thousand 
francs  a  year.  You  will  agree  that  there  are  not 
many  matches  that  can  vie  with  him.  You  are  an 
ambitious  little  thing,  and  you  are  right,"  said 
Zelie,  seeing  Ursule's  quick  gesture  of  denial.  "I 
have  come  to  ask  your  hand  for  Desire ;  you  bear 
your  godfather's  name,  it  will  be  doing  him  an 
honor.  Desire,  as  you  have  seen,  is  a  handsome 
fellow ;  he  is  very  well  thought  of  at  Fontainebleau, 
and  he  will  soon  be  public  prosecutor.  You  are  a 
wheedler,  you  could  make  him  go  to  Paris.  We 
would  give  you  a  fine  house  in  Paris,  you  would  be 
conspicuous,  you  would  play  a  grand  part,  for  with 
seventy-two  thousand  francs  a  year  and  the  salary 
from  an  appointment,  you  and  Desire,  you  would 
be  in  the  highest  society.  Consult  your  friends 
and  see  what  they  will  tell  you." 

"I  need  only  to  consult  my  heart,  madame. " 
"Tush!  tush!  do  you  mean  to  tell  me  about  that 
little  heart-breaker  of  a  Savinien?  Well!  you  will 
pay  very  dear  for  his  name,  his  little  moustaches 
turned  up  like  two  hooks,  and  his  black  hair.  And 
a  nice  sort  of  fellow !  You  will  flourish  in  a  house- 
hold on  seven  thousand  francs  a  year  and  a  man 
who  ran  up  a  debt  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs  in 


URSULE  MIROUET  331 

Paris  in  two  years.  And  then,  not  that  you  know 
that  yet,  all  men  are  alike,  my  child!  and,  with- 
out conceit,  my  Desire  is  as  good  as  a  king's 
son." 

"You  forget,  madame,  your  son's  danger  at  this 
present  moment,  which  can  only  be  averted  by 
Monsieur  de  Portenduere's  desire  to  please  me. 
This  peril  would  be  irretrievable  if  he  learned  that 
you  were  making  dishonorable  proposals  to  me. — 
You  must  know,  madame,  that  I  should  be  happier 
with  the  moderate  fortune  to  which  you  allude  than 
with  the  wealth  with  which  you  want  to  dazzle  me. 
For  some  reason  yet  unknown,  but  that  will  be 
known,  madame,  Monsieur  Minoret  has,  by  his 
odious  persecutions  of  me,  published  the  affection 
which  binds  me  to  Monsieur  de  Portenduere  and 
which  may  be  confessed,  for  there  is  no  doubt  that 
his  mother  will  bless  it;  so  I  must  tell  you  that  this 
affection,  permissible  and  lawful,  is  my  whole  life. 
No  destiny,  however  brilliant,  however  exalted  it 
might  be,  could  make  me  change.  I  love  absolutely 
and  unalterably.  So  it  would  be  a  crime  for  which 
I  should  be  punished  to  marry  a  man  to  whom  I 
should  bring  a  heart  wholly  given  to  Savinien. 
Now,  madame,  since  you  force  me  to  it  I  will  say 
even  more:  did  I  not  love  Monsieur  de  Portenduere 
at  all,  I  should  not  even  then  be  able  to  resolve  on 
bearing  the  sorrows  and  joys  of  life  in  the  company 
of  your  son.  If  Monsieur  Savinien  has  had  debts, 
you  have  often  paid  Monsieur  Desire's.  Our  char- 
acters are  neither  sufficiently  alike  nor  dissimilar  to 


332  URSULE  MIROUET 

permit  us  to  live  together  without  secret  bitterness. 
Perhaps  I  might  not  show  him  that  forbearance  that 
wives  owe  their  husbands,  so  he  would  soon  find  me 
burdensome.  Do  not  think  any  more  of  an  alliance 
of  which  I  am  unworthy  and  which  I  can  refuse  with- 
out causing  you  the  least  pain  as,  with  such  advan- 
tages, you  will  not  fail  in  finding  young  girls  more 
beautiful  than  I,  of  a  superior  rank,  and  richer." 

"Will  you  promise  me,  little  one,"  said  Zelie, 
"that  you  will  prevent  these  two  young  men  from 
taking  their  journey  and  from  fighting?" 

"I  foresee  that  it  will  be  the  greatest  sacrifice 
Monsieur  de  Portenduere  can  make  for  me ;  but  my 
marriage  wreath  must  not  be  put  on  by  blood-stained 
hands." 

"Well,  thank  you,  cousin,  and  I  hope  you  may 
be  happy." 

"And  I,  madame,"  said  Ursule,  "hope  that  you 
may  realize  your  son's  grand  future." 

This  answer  struck  the  heart  of  the  deputy's 
mother,  who  recalled  the  prophecies  in  Ursule's 
last  dream ;  she  stood  up,  her  little  eyes  fixed  upon 
Ursule's  face,  so  white,  so  pure  and  so  beautiful  in 
her  dress  of  half-mourning,  for  Ursule  had  risen  as 
a  hint  to  her  so-called  cousin  to  go. 

"Then  you  believe  in  dreams?"  she  said. 

"I  have  suffered  too  much  from  them  not  to  be- 
lieve in  them." 

"But  then— "  said  Zelie. 

"Good-bye,  madame,"  said  Ursule,  bowing  to 
Madame  Minoret  upon  hearing  the  curd's  footsteps. 


URSULE  MIROUET  333 

The  Abbe*  Chaperon  was  surprised  at  finding  Ma- 
dame Minoret  at  Ursule's.  The  anxiety  depicted 
on  the  thin,  wrinkled  face  of  the  former  postmistress 
naturally  set  the  priest  watching  the  two  women 
alternately. 

"Do  you  believe  in  revenants — ghosts — ?"  said 
Zelie  to  the  cure. 

"Do  you  believe  in  revenus — revenues — ?"  re- 
plied the  priest,  smiling. 

"They  are  sly,  all  these  people,"  thought  Zelie, 
"they  want  to  diddle  us.  This  old  priest,  the  old 
justice  of  the  peace  and  that  young  scamp  of  a 
Savinien  are  all  agreed.  There  are  no  more  dreams 
than  I  have  hair  in  the  palm  of  my  hand." 

She  left  after  making  two  curt,  stiff  bows. 

"I  know  why  Savinien  went  to  Fontainebleau," 
said  Ursule  to  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  informing  him 
of  the  duel  and  begging  him  to  use  his  influence  in 
preventing  it 

"And  Madame  Minoret  has  offered  you  her  son's 
hand?"  said  the  old  priest 

"Yes." 

"Minoret  has  probably  confessed  his  crime  to  his 
wife,"  added  the  cure. 

The  justice  of  the  peace,  arriving  at  that  moment, 
heard  of  the  proceedings  and  of  the  offer  just  made 
by  Zelie,  whose  hatred  of  Ursule  was  well  known 
to  him,  and  he  looked  at  the  cure  as  much  as  to 
say:  "Come  out,  I  want  to  speak  to  you  about 
Ursule  without  her  hearing  us." 

"Savinien   shall   know  that   you   have  refused 


334  URSULE  MIROUET 

eighty  thousand  francs  a  year,  and  the  cock  of  Ne- 
mours!" he  said. 

"Is  it  a  sacrifice  then  ?"  she  replied.  "Are  there 
any  sacrifices  when  one  truly  loves?  And  is  there 
any  merit  whatever  in  refusing  the  son  of  a  man 
whom  we  despise?  However  others  may  make  vir- 
tues of  their  dislikes,  that  must  not  be  the  morality 
of  a  girl  brought  up  by  a  Jordy,  an  Abbe  Chaperon 
and  our  dear  doctor!"  she  said,  looking  at  the  por- 
trait 

Bongrand  took  Ursule's  hand  and  kissed  it. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace  to 
the  cure,  when  they  were  in  the  street,  "what  Ma- 
dame Minoret  has  just  done?" 

"What?"  replied  the  priest,  examining  the  justice 
with  a  shrewd  look  that  appeared  to  be  merely 
curious. 

"She  wanted  to  make  arrangements  for  restitu- 
tion." 

"Then  you  think — !"  rejoined  the  Abbe  Cha- 
peron. 

"I  do  not  think,  I  am  certain,  and  look  here." 

The  justice  of  the  peace  pointed  to  Minoret,  who 
was  approaching  them  on  his  way  home,  for,  upon 
leaving  Ursule's,  the  two  friends  went  back  up  the 
Grand 'Rue  of  Nemours. 

"Obliged  as  I  have  been  to  plead  in  the  Assize 
Courts,  I  have  naturally  studied  remorse  thoroughly, 
but  I  have  never  seen  anything  to  equal  this !  What 
is  it  that  has  given  this  flaccidity,  this  pallor  to 
cheeks  that  used  be  as  tight  as  a  drum,  bursting  with 


URSULE  MIROUET  335 

the  sound,  rude  health  of  careless  folk  ?  Who  has 
drawn  dark  circles  round  those  eyes  and  subdued 
their  rustic  sprightliness?  Would  you  ever  have 
believed  that  this  forehead  could  wrinkle,  and  that 
the  brain  of  this  colossus  could  ever  be  agitated  ? 
He  feels  his  heart  at  last!  I  understand  remorse  as 
well  as  you  understand  penitence,  my  dear  cure;  till 
now  those  whom  I  have  observed  expected  their 
penalty  or  were  going  to  endure  it  in  order  to  be 
quits  with  society:  they  were  either  resigned  or 
they  breathed  vengeance ;  but  here  is  remorse  with- 
out expiation,  remorse  pure  and  simple,  greedy  for 
its  prey  and  devouring  it." 

"You  do  not  yet  know,"  said  the  justice  of  the 
peace,  stopping  Minoret,  "that  Mademoiselle  Mi- 
roue't  has  just  refused  the  hand  of  your  son  ?" 

"But,"  said  the  cure,  "be  easy,  she  will  prevent 
his  duel  with  Monsieur  de  Portenduere." 

"Ah!  my  wife  has  succeeded?"  said  Minoret. 
"I  am  very  glad,  for  I  could  hardly  keep  alive." 

"Indeed  you  are  so  much  changed,  that  you  are 
no  longer  like  yourself,"  said  the  justice. 

Minoret  looked  alternately  at  Bongrand  and  the 
cure  to  find  out  whether  the  priest  had  been  guilty 
of  any  indiscretion;  but  the  Abbe  Chaperon  pre- 
served an  impassiveness  of  countenance,  a  mournful 
serenity,  that  reassured  the  culprit. 

"And  it  is  all  the  more  astonishing,"  still  pursued 
the  justice  of  the  peace,  "because  you  ought  to  ex- 
perience nothing  but  content.  After  all,  you  are 
seigneur  of  Le  Rouvre,  you  have  added  to  it  Les 


336  URSULE  MIROUET 

Bordi£res,  all  your  farms,  mills,  meadows — you 
have  a  hundred  thousand  francs  a  year  with  your 
investments  in  the  Funds." 

"I  have  nothing  in  the  Funds,"  said  Minoret, 
hastily. 

"Bah!"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace.  "Look 
here,  this  is  rather  like  your  son's  love  for  Ursule, 
first  he  turns  up  his  nose  at  her,  then  asks  her  in 
marriage.  After  having  tried  to  kill  Ursule  with 
grief,  you  want  her  for  a  daughter-in-law!  My 
dear  monsieur;  you  have  something  in  your 
mind—" 

Minoret  tried  to  answer,  sought  for  words,  and  all 
he  could  hit  upon  was : 

"You  are  funny,  Monsieur  le  Juge  de  Paix — 
Good-bye,  messieurs." 

And  he  turned  slowly  into  the  Rue  des  Bourgeois. 

"He  has  stolen  our  poor  Ursule's  fortune!  but 
how  are  we  to  fish  for  proofs  ?" 

"God  grant — !"  said  the  cure. 

"God  has  placed  some  feeling  within  us  which  is 
already  speaking  in  this  man,"  broke  in  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  "but  we  call  that  presumption,  and 
human  justice  requires  something  more." 


The  Abbe  Chaperon  observed  a  priestly  silence. 
As  often  happens  in  such  circumstances,  he  thought 
far  oftener  than  he  wanted  to  of  the  robbery  half- 
confessed  by  Minoret,  and  of  Savinien's  happiness 
so  obviously  delayed  by  Ursule's  want  of  fortune; 
for  the  old  lady  secretly  admitted  to  her  confessor 
how  wrong  she  had  been  to  have  refused  consent 
to  her  son's  marriage  during  the  doctor's  lifetime. 
The  next  day,  on  leaving  the  altar,  after  mass,  he 
was  seized  with  an  idea  which  inwardly  assumed 
all  the  force  of  a  spoken  declaration ;  he  signed  to 
Ursule  to  wait  for  him,  and  went  with  her  before 
breakfasting. 

"My  child,"  said  the  cure,  "I  want  to  see  the 
two  volumes  in  which  the  godfather  in  your  dreams 
declares  he  put  his  bonds  and  bills." 

Ursule  and  the  cure  went  up  to  the  library  and 
there  took  out  the  third  volume  of  the  Pandects. 
Upon  opening  it,  the  old  man,  not  without  astonish- 
ment, noticed  the  mark  made  by  the  papers  upon 
the  leaves,  which,  offering  less  resistance  than  the 
cover,  still  preserved  the  imprint  of  the  bonds. 
Then,  in  another  volume,  he  recognized  the  species 
of  gap  produced  by  the  continued  presence  of  some 
packet  and  the  outline  of  it  in  the  middle  of  the 
two  pages  in  folio. 

22  (337) 


338  URSULE  MIROUET 

"Come  up,  do,  Monsieur  Bongrand!"  cried  La 
Bougival  to  the  justice  of  the  peace,  who  was  passing. 

Bongrand  arrived  just  as  the  cure  was  putting  on 
his  spectacles  to  read  three  numbers  written  in  the 
hand  of  the  late  Minoret  on  the  fly-leaf  of  colored 
vellum,  gummed  inside  the  cover  by  the  binder,  and 
which  Ursule  had  just  discovered. 

"What  is  the  meaning  of  this?  Our  dear  doctor 
was  too  great  a  lover  of  books  to  spoil  the  fly-leaf  of 
a  cover,"  said  the  Abbe  Chaperon,  "here  are  three 
numbers  entered  between  a  first  number  preceded 
by  an  M,  and  another  number  preceded  by  a  U. " 

"What  do  you  say  ?"  replied  Bongrand,  "let  me 
see."  "Mon  Dieu!"  cried  the  justice  of  the  peace, 
"is  not  this  enough  to  open  the  eyes  of  an  atheist 
by  proving  the  existence  of  a  Providence?  I  think 
that  human  justice  is  the  development  of  a  divine 
idea  that  hovers  over  communities!" 

He  seized  Ursule  and  kissed  her  on  the  forehead. 

"Oh!  my  child,  you  will  be  happy  and  rich,  and 
through  me!" 

"What  is  the  matter?"  said  the  cure. 

"My  dear  monsieur,"  cried  La  Bougival,  catching 
hold  of  the  justice's  blue  frock-coat,  "oh!  do  let  me 
embrace  you  for  what  you  have  just  said." 

"Explain  yourself,  so  as  to  spare  any  false  joy," 
said  the  cure. 

"If,  to  become  rich,  I  have  to  cause  pain  to  any- 
one," said  Ursule,  anticipating  criminal  proceed- 
ings, "I—" 

"Eh!"  said  the  justice  of  the  peace,  interrupting 


URSULE  MIROUET  339 

Ursule,  "just  think  of  the  delight  you  will  be  giv- 
ing our  dear  Savinien. " 

"But  you  are  mad!"  said  the  cure. 

"No,  my  dear  cure,"  said  the  justice,  "listen. 
The  certificates  of  the  national  debt  have  as 
many  series  as  there  are  letters  in  the  alphabet; 
and  each  number  bears  the  letter  of  its  series;  but 
the  bonds  of  stock  to  bearer  cannot  have  any 
letter  at  all,  as  they  are  in  nobody's  name;  and 
so  what  you  see  proves  that,  the  day  upon  which 
the  old  man  invested  his  money  in  the  Funds,  he 
made  a  note  of  his  bond  of  fifteen  thousand  francs  a 
year  bearing  the  letter  M — Minoret, — the  numbers 
without  letters  of  the  three  bonds  to  bearer,  and 
those  belonging  to  Ursule  Mirouet,  the  number 
of  which  is  23,534,  and  which  as  you  see,  immedi- 
ately follows  that  of  the  fifteen  thousand  franc 
bond.  This  coincidence  proves  that  these  num- 
bers are  those  of  five  bonds  obtained  on  the  same 
day,  and  noted  down  by  the  old  man  in  case  of 
loss.  I  had  advised  him  to  put  Ursule's  fortune 
in  bonds  to  bearer,  and  he  must  have  invested 
his  own  capital,  that  which  he  intended  for  Ur- 
sule and  that  which  belonged  to  his  ward,  on  the 
same  day.  I  am  going  to  Dionis's  to  consult  the 
inventory;  and,  if  the  number  of  the  inscription  he 
left  in  his  own  name  is  23,533,  letter  M,  then  we 
may  be  sure  that  on  that  same  day,  through  the 
office  of  the  same  exchange  agent,  he  invested: 
primo,  his  capital  in  one  bond ;  secundo,  his  savings 
in  three  bonds  to  bearer,  numbered  without  any 


340  URSULE  MIROUET 

series  letter ;  lertio,  his  ward's  capital ;  the  book  of 
transfers  will  give  undeniable  proofs.  Ah !  Minoret, 
you  sly  dog,  I've  got  you — Motus,  my  boys!" 

The  justice  of  the  peace  left  the  cure,  La  Bougival 
and  Ursule  lost  in  profound  admiration  of  the  ways 
in  which  God  leads  innocence  to  its  triumph. 

"The  finger  of  God  is  in  this,"  cried  the  Abbe 
Chaperon. 

"Will  they  do  him  any  harm?"  said  Ursule. 

"Ah!  mademoiselle!"  cried  La  Bougival,  "I 
would  give  a  rope  to  hang  him  with." 

The  justice  of  the  peace  had  already  arrived  at 
Goupil's,  the  appointed  successor  to  Dionis,  and 
was  walking  into  the  office  with  a  sufficiently  in- 
different air. 

"I  want,"  said  he  to  Goupil,  "some  slight  infor- 
mation about  the  Minoret  inheritance." 

"What  is  it?"  replied  Goupil. 

"Did  the  old  man  leave  one  or  more  three  per 
cent  bonds?" 

"He  left  fifteen  thousand  francs  a  year  in  three 
per  cents,"  said  Goupil  "in  one  bond,  I  described  it 
myself." 

"Then  consult  the  inventory,"  said  the  justice. 

Goupil  took  a  portfolio,  searched  it,  drew  out  the 
memorandum,  examined  it,  found  what  he  wanted 
and  read :  "  'Item,  one  bond — '  Here,  read  it ! — under 
number  23,533,  letter  M." 

"Be  so  kind  as  to  give  me  a  copy  of  this  item  of 
the  inventory  between  this  and  one  o'clock;  I  will 
wait  for  it" 


URSULE  MIROUET  341 

"Of  what  use  can  it  be  to  you?"  asked  Gpupil. 

"Do  you  want  to  be  notary?"  replied  the  justice 
of  the  peace,  looking  severely  at  Dionis's  appointed 
successor. 

"1  should  think  so!"  cried  Goupil,  "I  have  swal- 
lowed enough  humiliation  to  arrive  at  being  called 
master.  I  entreat  you  to  believe,  Monsieur  le  Juge 
de  Paix,  that  the  wretched  head  clerk  called  Goupil 
has  nothing  in  common  with  master  Jean-Sebastien- 
Marie  Goupil,  notary  of  Nemours,  husband  of  Ma- 
demoiselle Massin.  These  two  beings  are  strangers, 
they  are  not  even  alike !  Do  you  not  notice  any- 
thing about  me?" 

Monsieur  Bongrand  then  looked  at  Goupil's  cos- 
tume and  saw  that  he  wore  a  white  tie,  a  dazzling 
white  shirt  ornamented  with  ruby  buttons,  a  red 
velvet  waistcoat,  trousers  and  coat  of  handsome 
black  cloth  made  in  Paris.  He  had  smart  boots. 
His  hair,  carefully  smoothed  and  combed,  smelt 
agreeable.  In  fact,  he  seemed  transformed. 

"The  fact  is,  you  are  another  man,"  said  Bon- 
grand. 

"In  morals  as  well  as  physique,  monsieur !  Wis- 
dom comes  with  practice;  and,  moreover,  fortune  is 
the  source  of  cleanliness — " 

"In  morals  as  well  as  physique,  "said  the  justice, 
settling  his  spectacles. 

"Eh !  monsieur,  is  a  man  with  a  hundred  thousand 
crowns  ever  a  democrat?  So  you  may  take  me  for 
an  honest  man  that  knows  what  delicacy  is,  and  is 
disposed  to  love  his  wife,"  he  added  as  he  saw 


342  URSULE  MIROUET 

Madame  Goupil  coming  in.  "So  changed  am  I,"  he 
said,  "that  I  find  a  great  deal  of  intelligence  in  my 
Cousin  Cremiere,  I  am  training  her;  and  so  her 
daughter  never  talks  any  more  about  pistons.  In 
fact,  yesterday  you  see,  she  said  that  Monsieur 
Savinien's  dog  was  splendid  aux  arrets — in  confine- 
ment— :  well  then,  1  did  not  repeat  this  joke,  how- 
ever good  it  might  be,  and  1  immediately  explained 
to  her  the  difference  between  etre  &  Varret— setting, 
of  a  dog — ;  en  arret — couched  as  a  lance — ,  and  aux 
arrets — in  confinement — .  And  so,  as  you  see,  I  am 
quite  another  man,  and  I  would  prevent  any  client 
from  doing  a  dirty  trick." 

"Then  make  haste,"  said  Bongrand.  "See  that 
I  have  that  in  an  hour's  time,  and  the  notary 
Goupil  will  have  made  up  for  some  of  the  misdeeds 
of  the  head  clerk." 

After  having  asked  the  Nemours  doctor  to  lend 
him  his  horse  and  gig,  the  justice  of  the  peace  went 
to  fetch  the  two  accusing  volumes,  Ursule's  bond, 
and,  armed  with  the  extract  from  the  inventory,  he 
hastened  to  Fontainebleau  to  see  the  public  prose- 
cutor. Bongrand  readily  proved  the  purloining  of 
the  three  bonds  by  some  one  of  the  heirs,  and,  sub- 
sequently, the  guilt  of  Minoret 

"Misbehavior  is  explained, "  said  the  public  pros- 
ecutor. 

As  a  measure  of  precaution,  the  magistrate  forth- 
with wrote  a  stay  for  the  treasury  to  the  trans- 
fer of  the  three  bonds,  and  instructed  the  justice 
of  the  peace  to  go  and  inquire  into  the  proportion 


URSULE  MIROUET 

of  the  income  from  the  three  bonds  and  to  find 
out  whether  they  had  been  sold.  While  the  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  was  at  work  in  Paris,  the  public 
prosecutor  wrote  politely  to  Madame  Minoret,  ask- 
ing her  to  call  at  his  office.  Zelie,  full  of  anxiety 
about  her  son's  duel,  dressed,  ordered  the  horses  to 
be  put  to  the  carriage  and  came  infiocchi  to  Fon- 
tainebleau.  The  prosecutor's  plan  was  simple  and 
formidable.  By  separating  the  wife  from  the  hus- 
band, he  intended,  through  the  terror  inspired  by 
justice,  to  learn  the  truth.  Zelie  found  the  magis- 
trate in  his  study,  and  was  completely  crushed  by 
these  unceremonious  words. 

"Madame,  I  do  not  believe  you  to  be  an  accom- 
plice in  a  theft  that  has  been  made  in  the  Minoret 
inheritance,  and  which  justice  is  tracking  at  this 
present  moment;  but  you  can  save  your  husband 
from  the  Assize  Court  by  the  entire  confession  of 
what  you  know  about  it  Moreover,  the  punish- 
ment your  husband  will  incur  is  not  the  only  thing 
to  be  feared;  your  son's  removal  and  ruin  have 
to  be  avoided.  In  a  few  minutes,  it  will  be  too 
late,  the  police  are  in  the  saddle  and  the  commit- 
ment will  start  for  Nemours." 

Zelie  nearly  fainted.  When  she  had  regained 
her  senses,  she  confessed  all.  After  having  easily 
shown  this  woman  that  she  was  an  accomplice,  the 
magistrate  told  her,  that  in  order  to  save  her  hus- 
band and  her  son,  he  would  proceed  with  caution. 

"You  have  had  to  do  with  the  man  and  not  with 
the  magistrate,"  he  said.  "There  has  been  no 


344  URSULE  MIROUET 

complaint  made  by  the  victim,  or  publicity  given  to 
the  robbery ;  but  your  husband  has  committed  horri- 
ble crimes,  madame,  that  come  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  a  far  stricter  tribunal  than  I  am.  In  the 
present  state  of  affairs,  you  must  be  made  a  prisoner 
— Oh!  at  my  house,  and  on  parole,"  he  said,  seeing 
Zelie  about  to  relapse  into  a  fainting  fit.  "You  must 
remember  that  my  strict  duty  would  be  to  order  a 
commitment  and  to  commence  proceedings ;  but  I  am 
now  acting  as  Mademoiselle  Ursule  Mirouet's  guar- 
dian and  of  course  her  interests  demand  some  com- 
promise." 

"Ah!"  said  Zelie. 

"Write  these  words  to  your  husband:" 
And   he   dictated  the  following   letter  to  Zelie, 
whom  he  placed  at  his  desk : 

"Ml  FREND, 

"i  am  arested,  and  i  kav  told  al.  Giv  up  thee 
hinskripshuns  that  owr  unkel  leffl  to  Monsieur  de 
Portenduere  in  persewanse  ov  the  wil  thalyu  bernt,  for 
Monsieur  le  praucureure  du  roa  has  just  put  inn  an 
hopo^ishun  too  thee  Tre^hury." 

"In  this  way  you  will  spare  him  the  denials  that 
would  be  his  ruin,"  said  the  magistrate,  smiling  at 
the  orthography,  "we  shall  have  the  restitution 
managed  decently.  My  wife  will  make  your  stay 
at  my  house  as  little  unpleasant  as  possible,  and  I 
advise  you  not  to  say  a  word  about  it  and  not  to 
appear  at  all  agitated." 


RESTITUTION. 


"Mademoiselle"  lie  said  to  her,  "/  have  done  you 
great  wrong ;  but,  if  all  the  injury  I  have  done  can- 
not be  completely  amended,  I  can  atone  for  some  of 
it.  My  wife  and  I,  we  have  made  a  vow  to  give 
yon  our  entire  estate  of  Le  Ronvre  in  the  event  of 
our  son's  recovery,  even  as  we  shall  if  we  have  the 
fearful  misfortune  of  losing  him." 


URSULE  MIROUET  345 

His  deputy's  mother  once  confessed  and  shut  up, 
the  magistrate  sent  for  Desire,  related  to  him  in  de- 
tail the  theft  secretly  committed  by  his  father  to 
Ursule's  harm,  and  obviously  to  the  injury  of  his 
co-heirs,  and  showed  him  the  letter  written  by 
Zelie.  Desire  was  the  first  to  ask  permission  to  go 
to  Nemours  to  see  that  his  father  made  restitution. 

"It  is  all  very  serious,"  said  the  magistrate. 
"The  will  having  been  destroyed,  if  the  matter  is 
spread  about,  the  Massin  and  Cremiere  heirs,  your 
relations,  may  interfere.  I  now  have  enough  proofs 
against  your  father.  I  restore  you  your  mother, 
who  has  been  sufficiently  enlightened  as  to  her 
duties  by  this  little  ceremony.  Before  her,  I  shall 
appear  to  have  yielded  to  your  entreaties  in  setting 
her  free.  Go  to  Nemours  with  her,  and  bring  all 
these  difficulties  to  a  good  end.  Do  not  be  afraid 
of  anybody.  Monsieur  Bongrand  is  too  fond  of  Ma- 
demoiselle Mirouet  ever  to  be  guilty  of  any  indis- 
cretion." 

Zelie  and  Desire  started  immediately  afterward  for 
Nemours.  Three  hours  after  the  departure  of  his 
deputy,  an  express  messenger  brought  the  public 
prosecutor  the  following  letter,  the  orthography  of 
which  has  been  corrected,  so  as  to  spare  any 
derision  of  a  man  overtaken  by  misfortune: 

TO  MONSIEUR  LE  PROCUREUR  DU  ROI,   AT  THE 

COURT  OF  FONTAINEBLEAU. 
"  MONSIEUR, 

"  God  has  not  been  so  lenient  with  us  as  you  were,  and  we 
are  afflicted  by  an  irreparable  misfortune.    Upon  arriving  at 


346  URSULE  MIROUET 

the  Nemours  bridge,  one  of  the  traces  became  unhooked.  My 
wife  had  no  servant  behind  the  carriage ;  the  horses  could 
smell  their  stable ;  my  son,  fearing  their  impatience,  would 
not  allow  the  coachman  to  get  down,  and  jumped  out  to  fasten 
the  trace.  Just  as  he  was  turning  round  to  get  up  beside  his 
mother,  the  horses  started  off,  De"sire*  was  not  in  time  to 
squeeze  himself  against  the  parapet,  the  steps  cut  his  legs,  he 
fell  and  the  back  wheel  went  over  his  body.  The  express 
which  is  hastening  to  Paris  to  fetch  the  leading  surgeons  will 
take  you  this  letter,  which  my  son,  in  the  midst  of  his  agony, 
has  told  me  to  write  to  you,  in  order  to  inform  you  of  our  en- 
tire submission  to  your  decision  in  the  business  that  was 
bringing  him  home.  Until  my  last  breath,  I  shall  be  grate- 
ful to  you  for  the  way  in  which  you  have  proceeded,  and  1 
will  justify  your  confidence." 

"FRAN£OIS  MINORET." 

The  town  of  Nemours  was  distracted  at  this  terri- 
ble event  The  sympathetic  crowd,  at  the  gate  of 
the  Minorets'  house,  told  Savinien  that  his  revenge 
had  been  taken  in  hand  by  one  more  powerful  than 
himself.  The  nobleman  went  at  once  to  Ursule's, 
where  the  cure,  as  well  as  the  young  girl,  were  in 
greater  terror  than  surprise.  The  next  day,  after 
the  first  dressing,  when  the  doctors  and  surgeons 
from  Paris  had  given  their  unanimous  opinion  upon 
the  necessity  of  amputating  both  legs,  Minoretcame, 
dejected,  pale,  undone,  accompanied  by  the  cure,  to 
Ursule's  house,  where  were  Bongrand  and  Savinien. 

"Mademoiselle,"  he  said  to  her,  "I  have  done  you 
great  wrong;  but,  if  all  the  injury  I  have  done  can- 
not be  completely  amended,  I  can  atone  for  some  of 
it.  My  wife  and  I,  we  have  made  a  vow  to  give 
you  our  entire  estate  of  Le  Rouvre  in  the  event  of 


URSULE  MJROUET  347 

our  son's  recovery,  even  as  we  shall  if  we  have  the 
fearful  misfortune  of  losing  him." 

And  the  man  burst  into  tears  at  the  end  of  this 
sentence. 

"I  can  assure  you,  rriy  dear  Ursule,"  said  the  cure, 
"that  you  can  and  ought  to  accept  part  of  this  gift " 

"Will  you  forgive  us?"  said  the  colossus  humbly, 
going  down  upon  his  knee  before  the  astonished 
girl.  "In  a  few  hours,  the  operation  is  to  be  per- 
formed by  the  head  surgeon  of  the  Hotel-Dieu;  but 
I  do  not  trust  human  science  at  all,  I  believe  in 
God's  omnipotence !  If  you  forgive  me,  if  you  will 
go  and  ask  God  to  spare  us  our  son,  he  will  have 
the  strength  to  bear  this  torture,  and  I  am  certain 
that  we  shall  have  the  happiness  of  saving  him." 

"Let  us  go  to  church!"  said  Ursule,  rising. 

Once  risen,  she  gave  a  piercing  shriek,  fell  back 
upon  the  sofa  and  fainted.  When  she  regained  con- 
sciousness she  saw  her  friends,  save  Minoret  who 
had  rushed  out  to  fetch  a  doctor,  all  anxiously 
watching  her,  waiting  for  her  to  speak.  Her  words 
struck  a  chill  in  every  heart 

"I  saw  my  godfather  at  the  door,"  she  said,  "and 
he  signed  to  me  that  there  was  no  hope." 

In  fact,  the  day  after  the  operation,  Desire  died, 
carried  off  by  fever  and  the  revulsion  of  the  humors 
which  follows  upon  these  operations.  Madame  Mi- 
noret, who  had  no  other  feeling  in  her  heart  than 
that  of  maternity,  went  mad  after  her  son's  burial 
and  was  put  by  her  husband  under  the  care  of 
Doctor  Blanche,  where  she  died  in  1841. 


348  URSULE  MIROUET 

Three  months  after  these  events,  in  January, 
1837,  Ursule  was  married  to  Savinien,  with  the 
consent  of  Madame  de  Portenduere.  Minoret  became 
a  party  to  the  marriage  settlements  so  as  to  give 
Mademoiselle  Mirouet  his  estate  of  Le  Rouvre  and 
twenty-four  thousand  francs  a  year  in  the  Funds, 
keeping  nothing  of  his  fortune  except  his  uncle's 
house  and  six  thousand  francs  a  year.  He  has  be- 
come the  most  charitable,  the  most  pious  man  in 
Nemours;  he  is  churchwarden  of  the  parish  and  has 
constituted  himself  the  providence  of  all  unfor- 
tunates. 

"The  poor  have  taken  my  son's  place,"  he  said. 

If  you  have  ever  remarked  beside  the  way,  in 
countries  where  oaks  are  lopped  off,  some  old  tree, 
blanched  and  almost  withered,  still  pushing  forth 
shoots,  with  gaping  sides,  calling  for  the  axe,  you 
will  have  some  idea  of  the  thin,  white-haired, 
broken  down  old  postmaster,  in  whom  the  veterans 
of  the  country  do  not  recognize  the  happy  imbecile 
whom  we  saw  waiting  for  his  son  at  the  beginning 
of  this  story;  he  no  longer  takes  his  snuff  in  the 
same  manner,  he  carries  something  besides  his  body. 
In  short,  one  feels  in  every  way  that  God's  hand 
has  been  laid  heavily  upon  this  figure  to  make  a 
terrible  example  of  him.  After  having  so  hated  his 
uncle's  ward,  this  old  man,  like  Doctor  Minoret,  has 
so  thoroughly  centred  his  affections  in  Ursule,  that 
he  has  constituted  himself  manager  of  her  estates  in 
Nemours. 

Monsieur  and  Madame  de  Portenduere  spend  five 


URSULE  MIROUET  349 

months  of  the  year  in  Paris,  where  they  have 
bought  a  magnificent  mansion  in  the  Faubourg 
Saint-Germain.  After  giving  her  house  in  Nemours 
to  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  to  keep  a  free  school,  the 
dowager  Madame  de  Portenduere  went  to  live  at 
Le  Rouvre,  where  La  Bougival  is  head  concierge. 
Cabirolle's  father,  the  old  conductor  of  La  Dueler, 
a  man  of  sixty,  has  married  La  Bougival,  who  pos- 
sesses twelve  hundred  francs  a  year,  besides  the 
ample  salary  from  her  situation.  Cabirolle's  son  is 
Monsieur  de  Portenduere's  coachman. 

If  you  should  see  passing  through  the  Champs- 
Elysees  one  of  those  charming  little  low  carriages 
called  escargots,  lined  with  silk  gridelin,  ornamented 
with  blue  trimmings,  and  should  admire  a  pretty, 
fair  woman  therein,  her  face  wreathed  in  myriads 
of  curls,  with  eyes  like  shining  periwinkles  and 
brimful  of  love,  leaning  lightly  against  a  handsome 
young  man ;  if  you  should  be  bitten  with  envious 
longing,  just  think  that  this  handsome  Heaven-blest 
couple  have  early  had  their  share  in  the  miseries 
of  life.  These  two  married  lovers  will  probably  be 
the  Vicomte  de  Portenduere  and  his  wife.  There 
are  not  two  such  couples  in  Paris. 

"Theirs  is  the  greatest  happiness  I  have  ever 
seen,"  was  said  of  them  lately  by  the  Comtesse  de 
1'Estorade. 

So  bless  these  happy  children  instead  of  envying 
them,  and  look  for  another  Ursule  Mirouet,  a 
young  girl  brought  up  by  three  old  men,  and  the 
best  of  mothers — adversity. 


350  URSULE  MIROUET 

Goupil,  who  is  useful  to  everybody  and  is  justly 
regarded  as  the  wittiest  man  in  Nemours,  enjoys 
the  esteem  of  all  in  the  little  town;  but  he  is  pun- 
ished through  his  children,  who  are  ugly,  stunted 
and  inclined  to  hydrocephalus.  Dionis,  his  pre- 
decessor, flourishes  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
of  which  he  is  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments,  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  king,  who  sees  Madame 
Dionis  at  all  his  balls.  Madame  Dionis  gives  the 
whole  town  of  Nemours  the  details  of  her  receptions 
at  the  Tuileries  and  of  the  grandeur  of  the  French 
King's  court;  she  reigns  in  Nemours,  by  means  of  the 
throne,  which  certainly  became  popular  at  that  time. 

Bongrand  is  president  of  the  Court  at  Melun :  his 
son  is  in  a  fair  way  to  become  a  very  creditable  at- 
torney-general. 

Madame  Cremiere  always  says  the  funniest  things 
in  the  world.  She  adds  a  g  to  tambour^-,  apparently 
because  her  pen  sputters.  On  the  eve  of  her 
daughter's  marriage,  she  told  her  at  the  conclusion 
of  her  instructions  that  a  wife  should  be  the  busy 
caterpillar  in  her  house,  and  should  keep  a  sphinx's 
eye  upon  everything.  Goupil  is  also  making  a  col- 
lection of  his  cousin's  nonsense,  a  Cremtirana. 

"We  have  had  the  sorrow  of  losing  our  good  Abbe 
Chaperon,"  said  Madame  la  Vicomtesse  de  Porten- 
duere  this  winter,  she  having  tended  him  during  his 
illness.  "The  whole  district  came  to  his  funeral. 
Nemours  is  fortunate,  for  this  holy  man's  successor 
is  the  venerable  Cure  de  Saint-Lange. " 

Paris,  June-July,  1841. 
H 


LIST  OF    ETCHINGS 


VOLUME  XXIII 

PAGE 

THE  DILIGENCE  TO  NEMOURS Fronts. 

THE  CHURCH  AT  NEMOURS 16 

NEMOURS,  RUE  DES  BOURGEOIS loo 

SAVINIEN'S  LETTER 208 

RESTITUTION 344 


23  N.  &R..U.  M.  351 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-50m-ll,'50  (2554)444 


A     000  633  293     6 


PQ 

2175 

USE 

1397 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIPOBOTA 

LOS  AAGELJSS 
LIBRARY 


